China has reassured the Taliban that it is ready to begin development activities in Afghanistan via its ambitious multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative (BRI), as the war-torn country drifts toward an economic meltdown. Read More Here
Throughout history, great powers have often competed by supporting proxy forces. The Cold War, for example, was hardly a “long peace” when one considers the numerous externally abetted, intrastate conflicts and shadow wars that took place. There is no reason to think that U.S. competition with China and Russia will be any different than earlier periods of […]
Today, Modi has drawn India more closely than ever to the United States and the West and is locked in a deepening conflict with China under its President Xi Jinping. That also means Modi now has to manage a more complex relationship with Russia. Read More Here
Reminiscent of their previous harsh rule in the 1990s, the Taliban have already begun to wipe out some of Afghanistan’s gains of 20 years. They’ve denied women a seat at the Cabinet, beaten journalists into silence and enforced their severe interpretation of Islam, on occasion violently. Read More Here
In ending the two-decades-long war, Biden rejected every “liberal internationalist” premise of the enterprise, including the notion that building a democratic Afghanistan and transforming the region served U.S. interests or advanced universal values. Read More Here
Jaishankar is calling on the West to reflect on many of its failed approaches to problem-solving in foreign affairs and accept that a rebalancing is taking place in the world. In his view, genuine dialogue and teamwork are more appropriate to current world affairs than the one-sided unilateralism, whining and zero-sum vision of Western foreign-policy elites […]
The Taliban has appointed Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a close aide to the group’s late founder Mullah Omar, as head of Afghanistan’s new caretaker government, weeks after it took control of the country in a rapid offensive. The list of cabinet members announced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was dominated by members of the group’s old guard, with no women […]
Many fingers have been pointed and many culprits suggested in connection with the West’s debacle in Afghanistan. But there is great reluctance to talk about the most fundamental problem: the absence of a common Afghan national identity and the US-led coalition’s diffidence about nurturing one. Read More Here
Iran’s full membership in the Shanghai Corporation Organization has become a perceived necessity for Tehran’s foreign policy goals. But will it actually help? Read More Here Also Read: Israel’s military chief says ‘accelerating’ Iran strike plans
There are no forever wars, war is forever or at least until such time as U.S. adversaries cease to challenge us or, as Abraham Lincoln suggested, we make friends of them. In America’s present reality this means, in effect, that war will be part of the human condition for the foreseeable future. Why can’t we […]
looking beyond borders 