Getting to Know Bill Milam After He Passed Away

August 12, 2026
I walked into the National Press Club one hot evening in July, wondering how to spend the next hour or so. I knew little about Ambassador William B. Milam other than his name. Happy to report that I walked back a different person. Waiting one’s turn at the US Embassy does not readily reveal that diplomats stationed in our country do anything beyond sitting in cushy offices, attending luncheons or taking their place in the ritz-glitz of the capital. Having worked as a journalist for the better part of a decade, and dealing with the press departments of embassies and

Washington’s Deck with Mushfique

August 22, 2026

Bangladesh After Hasina: Rethinking the India Consensus

The fall of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 did not simply end a government. It ended a foreign-policy consensus. For fifteen years, Bangladesh-India relations had rested on a singular bargain: an Awami League government delivered New Delhi’s core strategic interests, including security cooperation that weakened insurgency in India’s restive Northeast, transit and port access, and political stability on India’s eastern frontier. In return, India provided diplomatic backing, economic support, and what its officials proudly called a “golden chapter” in bilateral relations. When that government fell, the bargain collapsed with it. What followed was not merely a cooling of ties, but