This episode of Asia Pacific Conversations features a discussion about the dramatic events in Bangladesh over the past several weeks with Michael Kugelman, Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., and APF Canada’s Vice-President Research & Strategy, Vina Nadjibulla.

Michael is an expert on the shifting geopolitics of South Asia and a regular contributor to Foreign Policy magazine, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to leading APF Canada’s research and programming team, Vina is an international security and peacebuilding specialist. 

What began as a month-long student-led protest over government cronyism spiralled into a mass uprising in Bangladesh this summer that left hundreds of people dead and battered an already struggling economy. The protests culminated in the resignation of Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the South Asian country with an iron fist for more than 20 years.

Hasina fled Bangladesh for India on August 5. On August 6, the country’s president dissolved Bangladesh’s parliament, clearing the way for an interim government led, at the behest of the student protesters, by Nobel laureate economist and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus.

In this episode, Michael and Vina discuss the “trigger point” that set this mass uprising in motion, the violence and repression that rocked the country of more than 170 million, India’s response to the crisis, and the future of an interim government that must now navigate a political and security vacuum at the heart of South Asia.