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,…
The history of the Silk Road networks and other trade connections is closely tied to the rise and fall of Eurasian empires, among them imperial China, the Mongol Empire of Changez Khan, Persian, the Mughal Empire and Ottoman Empires. Well established empires guaranteed that roads and bridges used for trade were kept in a good…
Pakistan-Iran relations have remained mired in half-hearted initiatives, coupled with misgivings and suspicions. Notwithstanding the fact that they share more than a 1000-kilometre border, common denominator of religion and an irritant-free geostrategic commonality, they have been poles apart. Joint economic ventures as well as trade and travel format are Greek at large. Big-ticket projects were…
Bomb/IED Attacks Two passers-by were killed and three security personnel injured in a bomb blast in the Cheetkan Bazaar area of Panjgur District in Balochistan on October 31, reports Dawn. Police said unidentified persons parked an explosive-laden motorbike in the Cheetkan Bazaar area which was detonated by remote control when a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle reached…
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasulallah Pakistan commonly known as Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) recently made headlines in Pakistan by staging another round of violent protests. Since its inception, TLP has created a law and order situation in Pakistan almost every year. A small number of Barelvi low level clerics emerged as a pressure group to prevent the execution…
A Webinar was held on 11th November, 2021 on the topic “India On a Slippery Slope” under the auspices of Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR), hosted by its Chairman Mr. Ikram Sehgal. The Panelists included the former President of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Mr. Sardar Masood Khan, Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Ambassador Abdul Basit, Brig Tariq…
The international intellectual debates of non-proliferation politics usually adopt a critical framework for examining South Asian politics where the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapon capabilities have intensified the regional security environment of South Asia. The evolving complex regional security environment of the nuclearized subcontinent always remained dependant on the New Delhi-Islamabad strategic completion, which attracts…
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…
Thanks, Sir. I think you got it right about potential risks for the region. I know that in polite conversations, these topics are not discussed but in the real and cruel world people talk about their dreams and delusions and it is directly proportional to the level of their knowledge or ignorance. This has been at least…
Mark Twain, the greatest American humorist, said, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Though he lived and died before World War-I, he was prophetic in essence. The post-exit scenario of the United States from Afghanistan is a perfect case study as to how a theatre of civilization, and subsequently a superpower, doomed…
