President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa set in motion a process aimed at consolidating their family’s control of the executive, cabinet, and legislature. The global coronavirus pandemic gave them an opportunity to further militarize the administration of the country. The ruling party, the Sri Lanka People’s Front, won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary elections, which allowed them to enact decisive constitutional change and overturn crucial legislation that curbed the power of the executive. The government’s ability to withstand the economic crisis and control the pandemic will be key to their complete blunting of any opposition forces.

In recent years the Baloch national movement has undergone a sea change. The dismantling of rudimentary representative institutions by the military regime of Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf, set off a process of radicalization of Baloch nationalism. The excessive reliance on a coercive state apparatus has not only alienated the moderate nationalists but also increased the popularity of a separatist creed. This article argues that aggressive resource exploitation and state repression is pushing Balochs toward secession.

Local elections consolidated the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration's grip on power. State-led efforts to stimulate economic growth continued with major infrastructure projects in the northeastern and southern parts of Sri Lanka. No significant progress was made toward a political settlement and reconciliation with the Tamil community, and the government came under increasing international pressure about its conduct in the last months of the civil war after the release of the United Nations Advisory Panel report.

Prime Minister Hun Sen's power became more concentrated. The economy expanded but was said to need diversification. Inequality intensified conflicts, but development generated legitimacy, while the political opposition and civil society were attacked. A U.N.-assisted court convicted five ex-Khmer Rouge leaders. Ties with China, the U.S., and Thailand improved.