The outbreak of the Novel Corona virus or COVID19 has shaken the world. Ever since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, it has spread across Asia, Europe and North America. No major instances have been reported from Africa, Australia and Latin America. After China the country that was […]
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The Future of Afghanistan and Pakistan
History has come full circle! On 29 February 2020, nearly 19 years after the events of 9/11 attacks, a peace accord was signed in Doha, Qatar between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which the Americans recognize only as the Taliban and the US Government. As per the terms of the deal, the US and their […]
Afghanistan Peace Deal and its Implications for Pakistan
The US and the Taliban Qatar Office are set to ink a peace deal on the 29th of February. The Americans will reduce the troop levels to 8,600. The Taliban will reduce violence. This is only the beginning. Future of the Afghan political dispensation is still vague and hazy. How things pan out in this […]
Crisis Management in South Asia
In a crisis prone region, crisis management and crisis stabilization is serious business. Pakistan has employed various means to handle and defuse crises. It has engaged directly with India to sort out prickly matters. This has resulted in Karachi Agreement 1948, Simla Agreement 1966 and Lahore Agreement 1998. It has inter alia sought friends, allies […]
Options for Pakistan after Qassem Solemani
When I first read Lt Gen Shahid Aziz’s book Yeh Khamoshi Kahan Tak? (How long this silence?) in 2013, I was a little sceptical about his assertion that he did not know about a US amphibious landing on the Balochistan coastline as a prelude the invasion of Afghanistan, when he was the Chief of the […]
National Security
It was the third week of December 2001, and we had been mobilized. This large scale military mobilization would be remembered as ‘Escalation 2001-02.’ Indians called it Operation Parakaram and the Americans had a more fancy title for it – the Twin Peak Crisis. India following the 9/11 example had used the alleged attack on […]
Erdogan’s Gamble
Receb Tayyip Erdogan is modern Turkey’s longest running head of the state after the founder of the Turkish republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Born in a poor neighborhood of Istanbul to a religious teacher, Erdogan heads the ruling Justice Party of Turkey. Erdogan has not only overseen transformation of Turkey into a modern economy, he has […]
Kashmir Post 370
The mandatory mourning over the repealing of Articles 370 and 35 A can last a few day, a week or may be a month depending on the degree of sympathy that one has with the Kashmir cause and the Kashmiris. It seems that ultimately become another scar on the much bruised national psyche. It will […]
Escalation of the Crisis in the Persian Gulf
As an oil producing nation, the dominant western nations have done their best to keep Iran under their influence since the last century. The Anglo Persian oil company (founded in 1908) was created much on the same lines as the Saudi Aramco. In the famous Tehran conference (29 November-1 December 1943) the leaders of three […]