“Why Washington’s Bangladesh gamble could ignite a new Islamist surge in South Asia”, First Post, December 13, 2025
“As Bangladesh approaches yet another defining political transition, the country has become the centre of an unusual and consequential diplomatic experiment.
Over the past year, Washington has intensified its engagement with Bangladesh’s Islamist parties, most prominently the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB). This shift in American diplomacy — subtle at first, now increasingly explicit — signals a strategic recalibration that could reshape South Asia’s political trajectory in unexpected ways.
The Biden and Trump administrations may disagree on many fronts, but when it comes to Bangladesh, both seem to have converged on a shared assumption: Islamists will hold a larger stake in the country’s future, and the United States must now engage them directly. But this outreach is occurring at a moment when Bangladesh is at its most politically fragile — and when Islamist revivalism is at its most assertive since the early 1990s……”
Read full article at firstpost.com
