BOOKS

The politics of foreign Aid in Sri Lanka
(2007) Politics of foreign aid in Sri Lanka, Promoting markets and supporting peace. Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.

Devolution and Development in Sri Lanka
(1994) Editor, Devolution and Development. New Delhi: Konark Publishers.

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.

ARTICLES

(2006) Sri Lanka’s International Straightjacket.
The failure of Sri Lanka’s peace process is partially due to its simplistic formulation of ‘government versus LTTE’ adopted by international mediators. Meanwhile, still other global players only seek stability of the Sri Lankan state.

Some thoughts on politics of foreign aid
Combining foreign aid as a part of foreign policy of donor countries and state formation process in Sri Lanka

Results of LG Election in February 2018 (2018)
A preliminary analysis of Local Government Elections held in February 2018. Analysis of election results point towards a new configuration of political party system of Sri Lanka. The impact is felt within the party system that gets support from the Sinhala majority.

(2011) Politics of market reforms and UNF-led negotiations.
The main purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of focusing on the politics of market reforms if Sri Lanka is to achieve sustainable peace. The late Newton Gunasinghe tried to draw our attention to this aspect in his seminal article analysing possible reasons for the July ‟83 anti-Tamil violence.2 In this essay he focused on the changing relationship between the state and different social classes among the Sinhalese because of policies of liberal capitalism and its impact on the ethnic conflict. Since the focus of essay was July ‟83 anti-Tamil violence where Colombo was the centre of violence, his foci were small businesses and the urban poor. He argued that the inauguration of liberal economic policies led to loss of state patronage in the case of small businesses and undermined welfare benefits received by the urban poor. He saw these factors playing a role in the July ‟83 violence.

BLOG

Post-war capitalism
A key issue in understanding the political economy of contemporary Sri Lanka is how we characterise the period after the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. I would call it 'post-war' rather than 'post-conflict'. A better way is to look at what happened in May 2009 as a point of historical transition, where there is a continuity and discontinuity with the preceding period. Probably we have seen an end to the period of violent challenges to the state that began in the early seventies.

Post 2015 Presidential Election-Some thoughts
An analysis of policy implications in the aftermath of the 2015 Presidential Election. The author argues aginst reductionist approaches that look for 'one big answer' to the problems faced by Sri Lanka. The article points out the need to focus on three areas of policy - strengthening the plural character of Sri Lanka, building the autonomy of the state, and an economic policy that integrates social dimensions into the growth strategy.