The region’s leaderships are making a set of strategic choices as consequential as the ones their predecessors made earlier, and it has an opportunity to make much better strategic choices than it made in the past, and there are signs it is beginning to do so—but not in every case. Read More Here
Ethnic separatists have recently launched a series of targeted attacks on Chinese citizens living in Pakistan, with the latest murder happening in Karachi on September 28. Read More Here
Amid the euphoria following recent Ukrainian battlefield victories, some commentators are cautiously optimistic that Ukraine could win the war by the spring. But Vladimir Putin’s latest moves suggest that Russia is settling in for a long war of attrition that will test European resolve. Read More Here
Almost inevitably, violent non-state revolutionary groups tend to be founded by charismatic figures. Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi epitomise this trend. Both men, in their own ways, presented themselves as the embodiment of their group’s values and purpose. Read More Here
Around the world, Facebook has been used to sow distrust in democratic institutions, and its algorithms have facilitated real-world violence, even genocide. Regulating the use of algorithms that micro-target users would be a first step toward ending the barrage of disinformation the company has unleashed. Read More Here
Before the Radcliffe Line, there was the Durand Line. The British, having seized territory from Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878-80 and annexed it to British India, dispatched Mortimer Durand to formalize those gains with a treaty in 1893. Read More Here
Iran does not have ideological qualms about supporting violent Sunni extremist groups as well as other ostensibly nonreligious ones, despite often being seen as the “protector of Shiites” around the world—when that role serves Tehran’s purposes. Read More Here
Afghans are entering a new stage in their country’s troubled history, with many of them fearing for their lives and their freedoms, as the government of President Ashraf Ghani collapsed Sunday and Taliban fighters entered Kabul and took over the presidential palace. Read More Here
Not only is the endgame of the armed conflict in Afghanistan undetermined. There are also questions about how moderate the Taliban will ever be, which has a tremendous impact on Chinese officials’ perception of, and policy toward, the organization. Read More Here
Two of Afghanistan’s major cities are in danger of imminent collapse as the government struggles to contain a war that is splintering out of control. A Taliban advance on Herat in the west has cut the city off from the rest of the country. Read More Here
looking beyond borders 