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In: Tan Tai Yong, ed. Socio-Political and Economic Challenges in South Asia. New Delhi: Sage.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of Sri Lanka making use of key developments in recent times. A paper that tries to do this task invariably faces the difficulty of choosing the focus. In an international conference one is always tempted to focus on the civil war, because this is what attracts international media and this is what many want to hear about. However privileging one narrative about Sri Lanka will not only give a false impression of a complex reality, but might not be able to come to terms with some of the paradoxes or even explain the continuity of the war itself. Hence this paper has chosen the path of multiple narratives without privileging any one of them.
Secondly, the paper tries to place the key events in recent times in a larger context of the political economy of Sri Lanka. Hopefully this provides a framework within which events can be understood.
Can democracy be designed?
(2003) Co-editor, Can Democracy be Designed? London: Zed Books.
Assessing participation - A debate from south asia
(1997) Co-editor, Assessing Participation: A Debate from South Asia. New Delhi: ITDG/Konark Publishers.
Sustaining a state in conflict: Politics of foreign aid in Sri Lanka, Colombo:ICES, (2018)
This study focuses on politics of foreign aid to Sri Lanka from developed countries of the West, Japan and multilateral agencies during the period 1977 to end of the armed conflict in 2009. This period is characterised by economic policies that emphasised liberal economic policies and an armed conflict resulting from the Tamil demand for a separate state. The study looks at politics of foreign aid in this context. Foreign aid played a dual role. It helped to sustain a state engaged in an armed conflict, while at the same time trying to promote a negotiated settlement. Therefore it was neither a do-gooder that liberals tend to believe nor a 'foreign devil that Sinhala nationalists like to see.
Devolution and Development in Sri Lanka
(1994) Editor, Devolution and Development. New Delhi: Konark Publishers.
(2013) Post-war political economy
Current situation in Sri Lanka - Some observations (2021)
Understanding current regime (2016)
(2006) Sri Lanka’s International Straightjacket.
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