“I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.” Arab Bedouin proverb The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has put Gulf countries in a bind. U.S. and its regional ally Israel started the war without any consultation with the Gulf countries and Iran is…
In early nineteenth century, several contenders of the Afghan throne engaged in a fratricidal war. In 1839, Shah Shuja (r 1803-09 & 1839-42) was living in Ludhiana on British pension when a trilateral agreement was reached involving East India Company, Shah Shuja, and Singh Sahib of Lahore Ranjit Singh. Shah Shuja was restored to the…
In 1960, General Muhammad Musa visited India on the invitation of the Indian army chief General K. S. ‘Timmy’ Thimayya. This group photograph was taken when former comrades of 6th Royal Battalion of 13th Frontier Force Rifles (6/13 FFR) got together in Delhi. The battalion had many titles over time. After the British conquest of…
Indian and Pakistani armies share a common history but the memory of that shared bond has faded away. Soldiers of British Indian army belonged to different religions and ethnicities, but all were proud to serve the profession of arms. They fought side by side as comrades all over the world and never imagined future hostilities…
John Masters (26 October 1914 – 07 May 1983) was a British army officer and a famous author. His novels dealt with life in British India. John’s own background fully qualified him for the task while his family had long association with India going back to 1805 when his great-great grandfather came to India with…
In 1849 the British East India Company (EIC) acquired Punjab and Pushtun lands across the Indus after defeating the Sikh dynasty of late Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Pathan tribesmen straddling key passes agreed to safeguard their territory in return for fixed payment. Adam Khel Afridi tribesmen inhabiting hills between Peshawar and Kohat kept that pass open…
Israeli kinetic operations in the region for over a year were taking all the space of international headlines when the Bashar al Asad regime in Syria collapsed within a few days in December 2024. Regional and international military and intelligence analysts and policy makers are now faced with a new puzzle. After the collapse of…
They do not believe that which they cannot grasp”. – Quran 10:39 October 07, 2023, the attack of Hamas on Israel surprised foes and friends of both Hamas and Israel. This event qualifies as a ‘strategic surprise’ defined here as a single event that changes the trajectory of history and measured not by the intentions…
“There is nothing further here for a warrior. We drive bargains …… old men’s work. Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace. And the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and…
Iranians for millennia have been doing business with the world during imperial and nation-state eras in good and troubled times. Iran has been under American and western sanctions for almost fifty years but it has developed sophisticated mechanisms to survive by using a shadow infrastructure. Iran has developed a complex web of shell companies, middlemen,…
