The Long, Hard Drive To Havana

The face-to-face conversation between President Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, marked the most significant thaw in the two countries’ relationship in decades…However, the process of fully restoring ties will be long and difficult—if it succeeds at all. Read Here – The Atlantic  

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The New Hegemon in Africa

Ethiopia has come a long way since the dark days of a quarter-century ago. Its resurgence, domestically and internationally, is unmistakable. Never have so many Ethiopians had so much reason to be optimistic and confident about the future. The Ethiopian vision of a Nile Basin where resources no longer lead to zero-sum competition and violent […]

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The Gwadar Dream

There is little doubt that the move to make Gwadar port fully operational will have a transformative impact on Pakistan. Still, there are good reasons to keep the optimism controlled, and to be mindful of the challenges ahead. For one, much of the engagement with China is being seen in Pakistan through an emotional lens, […]

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Straight From Shakespeare’s Pen

Welcome to Uzbekistan, a country that in recent months has been home to a drama that could have come straight from Shakespeare’s pen. Playing the leading roles are: a dictator, who has had his country under his iron grip for a quarter-century; his glamorous daughter, who he had been grooming as his successor; and his […]

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Rouhani’s Big Bet

Like Barack Obama, Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, took a big gamble last week, but his was riskier. In a speech on Friday, Rouhani declared that the proposed nuclear deal with the United States and five other major powers marked the “first step” in reaching “the highest point of constructive interaction” with the world. Iranians should […]

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Between A Rock And A Hard Place

For the Pakistani man on the street, the relationship with Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam’s two holy sites, is literally an article of faith. A Pew survey in 2013 found that 95 per cent of Pakistanis had a favourable opinion of the desert kingdom, and Pakistan was the only country in the Islamic world […]

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Sri Lanka Elections Coming Soon

Sri Lanka’s new leader plans to dissolve the country’s Parliament in May, setting the island nation on course for general elections in late June or early July — around the same time that he plans to announce details of a probe into allegations of human rights abuses during Sri Lanka’s long civil war, he told […]

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Perfecting Strategy

In the post-Cold War era, the biggest challenge for the U.S. is a rapidly rising China. During the Clinton administration, Washington had a clear hedging strategy toward Beijing — that is, both engagement and deterrence. At that time, China lacked the capability to challenge the U.S. Thus, Washington highlighted engagement in order to involve China […]

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