In Pakistan’s chequered history, 2011 will go down as the year when  Pakistani military  increasingly came under criticism.Writes Ishtiaq Ahmed

The international community including India needs to understand the basic fact that today’s Taliban are quite different from their pre 9/11 version. How best to quarantine them will be the challenge in 2012. Writes Alok Bansal

Despite hiccups, Nepal ended the year on a hopeful note. The challenge now is to wrap up the peace process and finalise the constitution in 2012.So, as the year ends, the gloom has given way to some hope. The peace process has progressed with Maoist combatants making choices about their future. Several contentious constitutional issues have been resolved. Challenges however remain. Writes Prashant Jha

With fundamentalist tendencies leading to competitive politics of which it became a part, the Government may have lost the initiative / political advantage gained by the unprecedented efforts at hosting a successful SAARC Summit in the southern Addu City, though it also meant that the people’s attention might have got diverted from price rise and other economic issues. Writes N Sathiya Moorthy

A synoptic overview of Bhutan reveals that ties with India continue to be characterized by regular high level political interactions, which have been instrumental in strengthening relations at the governmental level. Writes Medha Bisht

Three important episodes would have bearing on the future of Bangladesh. First, is the current war crime trial; second, the judgment on the fifth amendment to the constitution; and, finally, abolition of the caretaker government. Writes Smruti S Pattanaik