What comes next in Iraq is on everyone’s mind. Trump will inherit Iraq, its internal ethnic divides and external pressures between Iran and Saudi Arabia. He will inherit a complex, deliberate way of war solidified over eight years by Obama, yet born of the experiences of U.S. generals — including several who will now serve […]
Some Middle Eastern countries are showing a great deal of interest in Africa these days, and although Africa seems to welcome the attention, it can do without the drama. Read Here – Al-Monitor
India is poised to sell its sophisticated Akash missile defense system to Vietnam, the latest development in a broad strategic relationship that has grown rapidly in recent years and added a new twist to the spiralling power contest in the South China Sea. Read Here – The National Interest
Last year turned out pretty well for Chinese President Xi Jinping. The economic slowdown stabilised, relations with neighbours such as the Philippines improved, and Xi strutted the global stage while hosting the Group of 20 for the first time. The year ahead, however, could be more trying as Donald Trump enters the White House and […]
“Every Army chief has had his own legacy or way of doing things,” says Saad, who is a barrister in Islamabad, “our father believes in the supremacy of the Constitution. He always says he wants the Pakistan [that the] Quaid-e-Azam envisioned, a Pakistan where institutions are more important than individuals.” Read Here – Newsweek
The India-Pakistan relationship is almost psychoanalytic. The public triumphalism about this operation in India is not just cathartic, as if to say we are no longer passive victims. Let us not put too fine a point on it: Public discourse also has shades of blood lust. This blood lust is also evident in irresponsible sections […]
If India were to annul the IWT, the consequences might well be humanitarian devastation in what is already one of the world’s most water-starved countries — an outcome far more harmful and far-reaching than the effects of limited war. Unlike other punitive steps that India could consider taking against its neighbour — including the strikes […]
The army action marks a huge shift in India’s posture towards Pakistan and can rightfully be called the Modi doctrine of “strategic action” below the threshold of outright war. This strategy is intended to make Pakistan pay a price for trying to bleed India with “a thousand cuts” using terrorist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and […]
As India rises, a two-and-a-half-trillion dollar economy paired with global ambitions, its pain threshold will also rise — what is worth losing all of that over will become progressively higher in the next decade or so. And if India does decide to double-down on stirring up mischief inside Pakistan, nothing like it. Few things would enthuse […]
For a problem this profound, it is notable that no theories in the existing international relations literature, or in other states’ practices, offer guidance as to how India and Pakistan could most effectively proceed here. Unlike any other nuclear-armed antagonists, India and Pakistan directly border each other, have unresolved territorial disputes (Kashmir and Sir Creek), […]
looking beyond borders 