Ever increasing terrorism activities, check. A hapless security apparatus, check. Economic meltdown, check. Luckless population at the mercy of wolves, check. Major stakeholders blaming each other, check. Into the abyss, check! “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. Nietzsche’s quote…
Impossible Mission Force – to the uninitiated, IMF, can stand for that! Nevertheless, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a crucial cog in the global financial system. Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. Although the IMF and World Bank came about as part of the Bretton Woods accord after World War…
Clint Eastwood has been the most successful actor of his generation, with a lot of accolades to his name. None more so than in the movie Dirty Harry, a phrase that is all the vogue in the vernacular media nowadays for different reasons! In the film – with an empty 44 magnum in his hand,…
Consider these eye-watering statistics: inflation galloping at double digits, steepest rise in interest rates for 33 years, a two-year recession to look forward to, unemployment nearly doubling by 2025, longest downturn since records began! This is not the outlook for a developing, third world nation. It is the economic forecast for one of the developed,…
Rarely a recent conflict has been more replete with lessons for the policy making elite than the Ukraine-Russia war. This marks the end of the optimistic bonhomie of the 90s and definitively starts another era of a new Cold War between the US and its allies on one side and Russia and China aligned nations…
Natural disasters are notorious for two things – one, unleashing an era of human suffering and two, putting the moral compass and learning effectiveness of the ruling elite and the state under the microscope! In the recent floods, hitting vast swathes of Pakistan, the former was unfortunately on ample display and the latter was repeatedly…
By now it is a cliché to say that these are trying and difficult circumstances; they have been for quite some time and nothing on the horizon suggests that they will change anytime soon. For a developing country such as Pakistan – things are doubly tough! Particularly when it comes to foreign policy challenges. Thus,…
Imagine two opposing parties slugging it out in a court of law and then both accepting the ruling wholeheartedly afterwards. Imagine indicted individuals coming to court or jail without displaying victory signs. Imagine the truth actually coming out during a hearing. Imagine the competence, or lack thereof, of the prosecution and defence open for public…
Recently there has been a lot of talk about honour and independence in international relations, specifically in foreign policy formulation. Imran Khan particularly has struck a chord with the population all across the country. Right or wrong, his narrative of a ‘foreign conspiracy’ to stop his ‘independent foreign policy’ is gaining traction within the masses….
Absolute monarchies are generally that – absolute. Therefore, the recent news emanating from the Saudi Kingdom suggesting changes to the system governing its flag and anthem was not without some iota of surprise! Note that the contents are not being changed but just that the binding rules that authorize the usage of the two are…
