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warfare
Nabiya Imran | With the advent of the information age, it was obvious that technology will creep into the international political system. It has and it is here to stay. States with well-developed information technology sectors are very successful. One of the creations of this technology is techniques to penetrate into another state virtually in the cyber space. Cyber warfare...
Artificial Intelligence
The United States launched a competition, the goal of which is to create a system using artificial intelligence to combat armored vehicles in Russia. The Agency for Advanced Research Projects of the US Department of Defense (DARPA) announced the start of a competition for the development of systems based on artificial intelligence of a new generation, which can effectively...
South China Sea
“Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world; and consequently, the world itself.” The South China Sea has gained unprecedented popularity over the past few years due to the contradictory territorial claims of various Southeast Asian countries over it. However, there are other clashes which have links to...
M K Bhadrakumar l The best part of the visit by the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolay Patrushev to New Delhi (September 7-8) was that the two countries have embarked upon a voyage of (re)discovery of each other at a phase in their relationship when the US-led Quad irrevocably sets them apart and as Delhi...
Panjshir
M K Bhadrakumar l Panjshir has fallen to the Taliban with a bang — and a whimper. The bang is because a 40-year old legend lies shattered, the legend of the invincibility of Panjshir Valley. And the whimper is because the short-lived ‘resistance’ had a tame ending.  A BBC report said the revolt’s two top leaders Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh...
Afghanistan
Gandab Valiyeva l The Biden administration's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan by August 31 has created instability in the country. Following this decision, the Taliban in the country became active and took all control of 210 provinces and the capital. An ad hoc committee was formed, headed by former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, to peacefully hand over power...
deep-sea
Humankind’s transition to ‘low-carbon economies powered by ‘green energy’ has increased the demand for strategic metals such as Manganese, Nickel, Cobalt, Gold, Silver and rare earth. When coupled with the exhausting land resources, it has resulted in a ‘race to the bottom’, literally. This race to the deep-sea is rooted in the fact that the vast expanse of oceans...
United States
Saad Hafiz l  The outcome of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China may well define the rest of the 21st century. It is a multi-layered strategic battle for power and influence—manifested in economic power, technological prowess, and military capabilities. And the contrast of ideas of liberal democracy and free markets, and state-managed authoritarian capitalism and hyper-nationalism. The competition...
China
M K Bhadrakumar l The Biden Administration, in dire straits over Afghanistan, is pursuing China for help. There have been two phone calls to Chinese State Councilor and FM Wang Yi from US Secretary of state Antony Blinken since August 16 alone.  The taciturn readouts from Washington would have us believe that these conversations related exclusively to Afghan developments. But Beijing...
Chinese
Adv Abdul Rasool Syed l Lately, Chinese communist party (CCP) celebrated its 100th anniversary with great pomp and show. The event was marked by spectacular performances. In a rousing opening, the performers chanted slogans celebrating the party’s leadership as Mr. Xi and other leaders watched the occasion. “Listen to the party, be grateful to the party, and follow the party,” they...
Panjshir Valley
M K Bhadrakumar l Many Indian analysts are ecstatic that the Taliban’s goose is cooked, as Amrullah Saleh, deposed president Ashraf Ghani’s former deputy, is on the march to marshal an anti-Taliban resistance movement, a la the Northern Alliance of the late 1990s. The cold air of realism should have taught them the bitter lesson by now that wishful thinking does not translate...
Afghanistan
 Eric MARGOLIS l After 20 years of B-52 carpet bombing of Afghanistan, murderous drone strikes, 350,000 puppet soldiers, 20,000 mercenaries, nearly two trillion dollars in US spending, destruction of countless Afghan villages, the killing up to one million Afghans, spreading the opium trade around southeast Asia and Europe, abetting wide scale torture…. after all this the US-run Afghan’s puppet `president’ and...
The most important outcome of last month’s virtual Afghan-Central Asian Foreign Ministers meeting was “the need to create a political framework that would strengthen cooperation between these countries in various fields”, which should be prioritized as soon as possible so as to advance their shared goal of facilitating transregional connectivity. The Afghan Embassy in Turkmenistan’s monthly newsletter for July 2021 contained an...
Andrew Korybko | The whole world now realizes that the US has the opposite of the Midas touch since it destroys all those Global South nations that it invaded under the pretext of “nation-building”. The Taliban won the War in Afghanistan after nearly 20 years upon finally returning to power by mostly peaceful means on Sunday. The US overthrew their mostly...
Taliban
M K Bhadrakumar l The explosion of life is unstoppable even after Taliban takeover. The first buds are edging their roots from the dirt no sooner than Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul on Sunday, without telling anyone, carrying a massive loot of ill-begotten wealth stolen from his people. And the green shoots of political recovery are appearing.  Tense and urgent care is...
M K Bhadrakumar l The western analysts feel agitated about Iran’s refusal to play by the rule book of liberal democracy. They feel indignant even as Tehran released on Tuesday the final list of candidates found qualified by the Constitutional Council to run for president in the June 18 election.  A consensus is forming that the election is gerrymandered by the powers that...
Pax Americana
M K Bhadrakumar l Anyone who tried to divine the Russia policy of the Biden presidency out of the corpus of statements by current and prospective officials in the new administration would know by now that the range of instincts and perspectives contained in those statements did not really reflect or anticipate what was to happen — the upcoming summit...
Geography and history have left Afghanistan a fractured landscape, the contours of which are re-emerging as the United States withdraws from its 20-year engagement. Landlocked in Central Asia, Afghanistan has a history of being a geographically fragmented nation with an equally fragmented society, with concentrations of ethnic, sectarian and clan affiliations that have long shaped the Afghan context. After the U.S.-backed...
war
Saad Rasool | Even in these extremely uncertain coronavirus times, there is one thing that can be asserted with some measure of certainty: a new war, a new Great Game, a new world order, is afoot. And in the coming months and years, South Asia, along with the Pacific, will most likely be the arena in which this next Great...
Tehran
M K Bhadrakumar l There have been two successive setbacks in the past one-year period to the New Delhi-Tehran relationship. India has been literally eased out of two strategically important projects in Iran that were full of promise to uplift the ties in a medium and long term perspective.  The first was in July when Tehran dropped India from the planned construction of a rail...
China
M K Bhadrakumar l Ten months after the first meeting of the foreign ministers of China and the five Central Asian states, Beijing has followed through with a second session on May 11 at a gathering in Xi’an, China, hosted by Foreign Minister Wang Yi.  The venue is symbolic. The ancient city of Xi’an used to be the ‘terminus a quo’...
US
M K Bhadrakumar l As the US and NATO troop withdrawal from Afghanistan enters the second week, certain trends are appearing on the security front as well as at the diplomatic and political level. The graph of violence is rising while there is also greater clarity about the US’ game plan.  As could be expected, the Taliban campaign of targeted killings...
Saudi Arabia
Bilateral talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran will not end their rivalry but could de-escalate conflict in areas where both have influence, including Yemen. News of rare talks between two of the Middle East’s biggest adversaries comes as both Riyadh and Tehran are trying to assess where they stand with U.S. President Joe Biden’s new administration. The Iraqi government’s eagerness to position...
India
Jawad Falak l On 7 April, the US Navy conducted a ‘navigation operation’ within Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without any intimation to India. To add insult to injury, the US 7th Fleet openly officially admitted the maneuver, saying, “On April 7, 2021 (local time) USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles...
Ukraine
Andrew Korybko | Ukraine wants war with Russia due to a combination of domestic and international factors, but such a scenario would be disastrous for the Eastern European country and only serve the interests of some members of the political elite and their foreign patrons. The whole world is watching with bated breath to see whether Ukraine and Russia will go...
Jordan
The most we know is that on April 3, 2021, the Jordan Chief of Staff, General Youssef Huneiti, came to politely inform Prince Hamza that he was under house arrest and that he was forbidden to talk to the media. The recorded conversation was nevertheless circulated. It shows an arrogant and fiery prince, while the military officer, always courteous...
US
M K Bhadrakumar l In his landmark foreign policy speech delivered from the US state department on February 4, President Joe Biden had proclaimed that “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the centre of our foreign policy.” That maxim was put to test last week. And it failed to make the grade.   A confusing picture emerges as the US diplomacy toward Russia...
Duqm Port
Abdul Wahab l Duqm port has immense importance due to its strategic location. Duqm port is a segment of the SEZAD project (Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm) in the Sultanate of Oman. The port, which was designed with the intention of boosting the economy, is an evergreen project that is rapidly establishing itself as a center of economic activity...
US
Zamir Awan l After two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, losing thousands of servicemen, losing trillion dollars, killing millions of innocent Afghans, destroying millions of homes, damaging Afghanistan completely, finally, the US accepted its defeat in the Afghan war. On April 14, 2021, President Joe Biden made a speech from the Roosevelt — the Treaty Room in the White House.  In...
This article focuses on the application of the broad principles of freedom of the high seas and navigation rights, as outlined in the LOSC, within specific situations that permit coastal States to impose some limitations on freedom of navigation including “innocent passage” and “transit passage.”  The U.S. is not a party to the LOSC, but it considers the provisions...

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