Afghanistan = China+India-West?

The China-India relationship is still riddled with suspicion from the 1962 war, and a smoldering border dispute and rivalry in the maritime sphere complicates relations further. But as Western forces are drawn down in Afghanistan at the end of this year, cooperation may be the best way to establish the regional stability that the country needs […]

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A View From Washington

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s early foreign policy blitz and his emphasis on economic “deliverables” suggests that he is rewriting the nationalists’ script on what will determine India’s power, to include a strong emphasis on economic growth. Read Here – Brookings

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India And Its “Fast Power”

While hard power and soft power are necessary attributes of sustainable power projection by nation states, smart and fast power can help nations, big and small, find their way through or adapt to complex and rapidly changing strategic environments. By acting “fast”, the Modi government can claim it has more than neutralised, in a short […]

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And What’s The Third Surprise?

India’s new government has sprung two back-to-back surprises on Pakistan: the first was inviting Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the second was the about-face on foreign secretary level talks upon the resumption of dialogue. Read Here – The Diplomat

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Russia’s New Power Play With Pakistan

Russia’s decision to go ahead with the sale of Mi-35 attack helicopters to Pakistan, even in the face of official Indian concerns, is being seen by some quarters as evidence of a “major” regional re-alignment in the wake of the American drawdown in Afghanistan. Read Here – The Diplomat

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In Pakistan, A New Sharif Or The Same Old Guy?

the majority of Pakistanis were convinced that the eight years Mr Sharif had spent in forced exile had matured and mellowed the man. They believed he had returned home determined to create a legacy of betterment for his deeply conflicted country, and looked forward to five years of his governance with a sense of optimism. […]

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The Road To Ferghana

Ferghana is the hotspot of Central Asia. It is an ethnic soup with hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz and Tajik living in Uzbek Ferghana and vice-versa. Ethnic tensions, sporadic violence and in 2010 the region erupted in violence when hundreds were killed. Read Here – The Hindu

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The Not So Well Known Chaudhari Rahmat Ali

Pakistan was born on the top deck of a London bus. Or on a walk along the Thames – different witnesses, different stories. What’s more certain, is the time: the early 1930s; and the place where that place-name was first committed to paper: a modest boarding house at 3 Humberstone Road in Cambridge. Read Here […]

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The Not-So-Distant East

The more the United States turns out to be a fickle, unreliable ally of its longstanding friends in the Middle East—especially Saudi Arabia and Israel—the more the leaders of South Korea and Japan will worry whether they can rely on the United States’ defense umbrella. Read Here – The Diplomat

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From Gwadar To Somewhere

Despite the fact that the free trade zone port of Gwadar in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan has been an unprofitable enterprise with operational control now in Chinese hands, its potential remains. If anything, the development of the deep ocean port and an associated international airport, as well as the creation of a transport corridor connecting Gwadar […]

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