Dr. Asoka Bandarage Courtesy: Inter Press Service Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits member states from using threats or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Violating international law, the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, 2026. The ostensible reason for this unprovoked aggression was to […]

Dr. Asoka Bandarage  Courtesy: IPS NEWS Tropical Cyclone Ditwah, which made landfall in Sri Lanka on 28 November 2025, is considered the country’s worst natural disaster since the deadly 2004 tsunami. It intensified the northeast monsoon, bringing torrential rainfall, massive flooding, and 215 severe landslides across seven districts. The cyclone left a trail of destruction, […]

Dr. Asoka Bandarage My recent visit to Brazil coincided partly with the Conference of the Parties (COP) 30, the 30th United Nations Climate Conference in Belém. Although I did not attend COP 30, I was very fortunate to visit the Amazon. It was both awe-inspiring and humbling to experience —even briefly—the mystery and stillness of […]

Asoka Bandarage    Please join us online to welcome Dr Asoka Bandarage who will be giving a public talk on Wednesday 17th September at 6.30pm UK time. Existential Crisis, Mindfulness and the Middle Path to Social Actionby Asoka Bandarage Dr Bandarage will deliver a public lecture for The Buddhist Society on Wednesday 17th September 6:30pm […]

Dr. Asoka Bandarage, Courtesy IDN-InDepth News In July 2025, the influential global travel website Big 7 named Sri Lanka the most beautiful island in the world,” stating that the teardrop-shaped island off the southern coast of India has it all—golden beaches, terraced tea plantations, timeworn temples, colonial towns, misty mountains, and wildlife safaris … elephants […]

Dr. Asoka Bandarage Courtesy In-depth News We live in a time of accelerated militarism, environmental devastation, and deepening social collapse. Amid these crises, the destruction of our shared global heritage — humanity’s historical, spiritual, and artistic legacy — receives an astounding lack of attention. As we enter the age of transhumanism and techno-market reality, creativity […]

Asoka Bandarage I returned to the U.S. from Cuba just a few hours before Donald Trump signed a memorandum on June 30, 2025, tightening the long-standing U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. The memorandum includes a statutory ban on U.S. tourism to the neighboring island. Despite a long fascination for the island nation, I did not […]

By Dr. Asoka Bandarage Will a peaceful and sustainable multipolar world be born when the rising economic weight of emerging economies is matched with rising geopolitical weight, as argued by renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs in his recent Other News article?[i] There is no question that, as the US-led world order collapses, a new multipolar world […]

Dr. Asoka Bandarage Following independence from Britain, both India and Sri Lanka emerged as leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, which sought to advance developing nations’ interests during the Cold War. Indeed, the term “non-alignment” was itself coined by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his 1954 speech in Colombo. The five principles of the Non-Aligned […]

Volume 30 in the series De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences  Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter 2023 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111203454Cite thisShare this Overview About this book Now in Paperback This book provides a broad picture of Sri Lanka’s on-going political and economic crisis as the culmination of several centuries of colonial and neo-colonial developments. The book presents the Sri Lankan crisis […]

About this book Volume 30 in the series De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences Now in Paperback This book provides a broad picture of Sri Lanka’s on-going political and economic crisis as the culmination of several centuries of colonial and neo-colonial developments. The book presents the Sri Lankan crisis as an exemplification of a broader global existential […]

W. D. Lakshman, Professor Emeritus, University of Colombo Asoka Bandarage is known for her unconventional approach in several of her publications on development which extensively draw case study material from Sri Lanka. Her examination of the current crisis in Sri Lanka also employs an innovative analytical approach, setting it apart from most existing studies on […]

Asoka Bandarage [This article is derived from the author’s new book: Asoka Bandarage, CRISIS IN SRI LANKA AND THE WORLD: COLONIAL AND NEOLIBERAL ORIGINS: ECOLOGICAL AND COLLECTIVE ALTERNATIVES (Berlin: De Gruyter,2023) https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783111203454/html?lang=en] Sri Lanka has been faced with an unprecedented political and economic crisis since the beginning of 2022. The dominant narrative attributes the crisis […]