[PINR] 27 September 2005: Intelligence Brief: Nepal

oct 2

how the UPA lost nepal.

nice work, 'leaders'!

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From: PINR Dispatch <dispatch@pinr.com>
Date: Sep 27, 2005 9:15 AM
Subject: [PINR] 27 September 2005: Intelligence Brief: Nepal
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_______________________________________ Power and Interest News Report (PINR) http://www.pinr.com content@pinr.com ------------------------------ 27 September 2005 PINR strongly recommends you to read one of our past in-depth analyses that provides a forecast for international relations in the 21st century: "The Coming World Realignment" http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=317 ------------------------------ Intelligence Brief: Nepal Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein http://www.pinr.com Nepal, landlocked and bordered by the rising Asian powers of India and China, has become the object of competition among its neighbors as the country has descended into severe instability. The only Hindu kingdom in the world, with a generally impoverished population of 27.7 million people and few strategic resources, Nepal interests New Delhi and Beijing as a geostrategic prize in the new "great game" for spheres of influence in Central Asia. [See: "The 'Great Game' Heats Up in Central Asia"] Except for a brief period of parliamentary government after World War II, Nepal was an absolute monarchy until 1989, when King Birendra, bowing to pressure from a coalition of political parties and social movements, instituted a constitutional monarchy. The new parliamentary system was riven by fractious partisanship, failure of leadership, corruption and the persistence of poverty. In 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (C.P.N.(M.)) abandoned parliamentarism and initiated an armed "people's war" in the countryside aimed at overthrowing the constitutional monarchy and establishing a "socialist republic." ..... more