Context As great power competition has gradually picked pace, it was assumed that the Campaign Against Extremism has subsided. In fact, US has admitted that this campaign has distracted it from preparing and dealing with global adversaries such as China and Russia. However, recent events have demonstrated that the character of the campaign has changed…
Context The New Cold War paradigm and great power rivalry framework is settling in and beginning to define international affairs. After Europe and Pacific, the Middle East is emerging as another hotly contested theater between the global powers. While Ukraine has been consuming most of the media bandwidth, matters related to Iran’s nuclear program and…
Context While there are different angles to interpret the fast-moving flux in the global political, economic and security situation, the great power rivalry perspective has a clearly dominant and picking pace. There is usually a period of calm when one power dominates or when there is stability in the balance of power equation. The rapid…
Context Historical parallels are important in developing perspectives on present-day conundrums. They provide an illustration of where matters were and what were the important events and considerations at the time. Deciphering this helps to ascertain where matters stand and navigate the future. The November article last year had examined the division of British subcontinent in…
Context What did Putin Invade Ukraine? Many interpretations have come to the fore on why Putin invaded Ukraine on February 22. One of the recurring ones is the ever-expanding NATO presence in Eastern Europe, which was now about to include Ukraine itself, right on the Russian border. Russia has often cited the unwritten understanding that…
Context The abrupt withdrawal of US and coalition forces from Afghanistan last August and the arrival of Afghan Taliban at the helm represented a key turning point in the region and beyond. The attention in the past had remained on the risks of what the return of Afghan Taliban would mean. Now that it is…
Context Despite a haphazard military pullout and the subsequent despondency evoked by the rapid collapse of the Afghan government, the United States has been compelled to resume talks with the Taliban. The US decision to begin talking to the Taliban again in Qatar starting this week may seem like an undue concession to a group…
Context No other single event is as consequential to the politics of the Middle East than the future of Iran’s nuclear deal. The nation’s nuclear program has been at the center of contention between Israel and Iran, and by that connection to the US. After quite a bit of deliberation, P5+1(US, Russia, China, France, UK,…
Context The historical parallels are important in developing perspectives on present-day conundrums. They provide an illustration of where matters were and how they were dealt with at the time. Not only that they also provide historical continuity and help grasp the future course. Consider the following excerpt from Allama Iqbal’s “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in…
Context The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 20th anniversary conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on September 17. The conference took place in the backdrop of the collapse of Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan as the Taliban took over. This was accompanied by the complete withdrawal of US and coalition troops that has raised alarm bells…
