Terrorist Activities in Pakistan Suicide BombingsA suicide car bomb attack killed five soldiers and wounded 12 others on December 24 at Tochi Scouts’ main office in Bannu District, reported Dawn. The bomber drove his explosives-packed vehicle into the camp office of the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops, killing five personnel and injuring 12 others. Bomb AttacksTwo…
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a multilateral forum for disarmament diplomacy. It has evolved important treaties banning biological and chemical weapons as well as underground nuclear tests. CD hasn’t produced anything worthwhile since the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban treaty (CTBT), a pact now on hold because some key nations, including the US, have not…
IntroductionSOMALIA is one of the poorest countries of Africa. For centuries it had remained a colony of the Arabs and European Powers. It gained independence in 1960, but for decades has been in political turmoil and in the grip of petty chiefs, army commanders, nobles and hostile infiltrators from ETHOPIA and KENYA. Due to famine,…
Globalization means different things to different people. The term globalization has become part of our vocabulary over the last three decades but the socio-cultural and economic changes it connotes have been taking place from the time immemorial and had begun when the hunters and gatherers placed their feet on the planet earth. How do we…
Abstract Rise of diplomacy, dialogue and development at the regional and international power politics especially after the horrendous events of World War II has changed the rules of the game. Terms of engagements have been redesigned, reshaped and reframed around the globe over the period of time. Our modern international political history and diplomacy are…
IntroductionIn the beginning of 1947, the global struggle between United States and former Soviet Union was “hardening into the cold war”[1] . With a futuristic vision and owing to its close proximity with Soviet Union, U.S was keeping a close surveillance of the developments taking place in the subcontinent, which was being partitioned into India…
As expected, Bonn II Conference did not go beyond the rhetoric. Conference convened to encourage talks with the Taliban and boost the regional cooperation, brought forth the reality of a dead ended peace process sans Pakistan. Though Taliban had been engaged in peace talks for years, they also didn’t show up for the event; they…
In a tragic and ironical twist of events, it is now the turn of Pakistan to ask its supposed ally (ISAF and NATO) ‘Are you complicit or plain incompetent.’ The insane, almost barbaric attack on two Pakistani check posts by ISAF air power on 26 November 2011 martyred 24 brave soldiers of Pakistan and left…
Mumbai is a city of contrasts, never so apparent as one comes in to land at the International Airport. High-rise developments are pockmarked across shanty towns, ongoing construction of raised expressways snaking over slum areas to overcome the enormous traffic jams clogging the city. Dreams sometimes become a reality in this sprawling metropolis, multiple times…
As the shadows lengthen on this December 3rd, 2011 late afternoon, I hear some voices from afar, from a day long forgotten by most. In a flash, I am transported back to that fateful evening of December 3rd 1971, when, as an 8 year old, I was playing cricket in the rear lawn of our…
