Andrew Korybko |
As astounding as it may sound to most observers, the global pivot state of the 21st century isn’t China, the US, nor Russia, but Pakistan. The South Asian state regrettably has a terrible international reputation as a result of the joint Indo-American infowar that’s been waged against it over the past few decades, but an objective look at...
Farid A Malik |
Pakistan started off well; common good was on everyone’s agenda. However, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the first governor-general, died on September 11, 1948, and the first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated on October 16, 1951. Khwaja Nazimuddin, a prominent politician from the eastern wing replaced Jinnah, and served as governor-general until 1951, and as prime...
M K Bhadrakumar |
The US President Donald Trump’s reported decision abruptly to call off military strike against Iran which he’d previously ordered, highlights the growing complexity of the US-Iranian entanglement.
Indeed, it takes political courage to rationalise amidst such a dangerous situation that discretion is the better part of valour. Trump has been smart enough. But, having said that, there’s going to...
Researchers at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have concluded that military spending is skyrocketing around the world. According to a report published by the institute in April, the world spent $1.8 trillion on military expenditure in 2018 (2.1 per cent of global GDP), which is 2.6 per cent higher than in 2017 and 76 per cent higher than in...
Andrew Korybko |
Russian Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov traveled to Islamabad on an unannounced visit to discuss the future of the war-torn state following the US’ possibly impending “phased withdrawal” from the country. It should be reminded that this very plausible scenario was brought about by the US’ Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s shuttle diplomacy over the past month...
Farid A Malik |
Political cleansing has finally started. The dirt is being removed from the arena. It is better late than never. Finally, the process of generating inept and corrupt leadership started in October 1958 by the first usurper is coming to an end after six decades. There is a long list from the Chaudhry’s of Gujrat, Sharif’s of...
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...
Jawad Falak |
16 December 2018 marked the 47th year since the fall of Dhaka to the Indian Army in the war of 1971. The war which started with the backing of terrorist elements known as the Mukti Bahini culminated in an illegal Indian invasion of Pakistan’s vulnerable eastern portion then called East Pakistan. The tactic of terror used by...
M K Bhadrakumar |
What a coincidence that a leaked document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) just exposed that the chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April, 2018 was most likely staged. In security parlance, it was a false flag operation — stage-managed cunningly to create the alibi for a ‘humanitarian intervention’ by the West in...
Leonid Savin |
The RAND Corporation recently published a document entitled Overextending and Unbalancing Russia. Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options. The study is the collective effort of experienced diplomats, including former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and US Ambassador to the European Union James Dobbins; a professor (Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, National Defence University) and military intelligence branched...
Tamara Dietrich |
Hampton Roads residents know full well that the Atlantic is gnawing ever more ferociously at the shore, surging into the streets whenever it gets riled up, and a looming threat, experts say, throughout this century and for more centuries to come. What residents may not know is that, while half of the rise in global sea level is...
Jacob G. Hornberger |
SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet seen the excellent HBO miniseries Chernobyl and might yet do so, you might want to wait to read this article until after you have seen the series, as it contains spoilers.
The five-part series documents the catastrophic nuclear explosion that took place at a nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union in...
TIC Analysis |
Indian Leader Narendar Modi returned to power with a landslide victory in the recent elections. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago and negating perceptions that it was unpopular. According to experts, while the BJP faced difficulties due to adverse...
Farid A Malik |
‘You can have pound of flesh but cannot draw blood’. These are the lines from the 16th century play ‘Merchant of Venice’ written by William Shakespeare. He covered the topic of debt five centuries age. As Antonio the merchant missed the deadline to pay back the loan, Shylock the Jew insisted on pound of flesh even...
Joan Chang |
The U.S. government’s interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific region is “rooted in the fact that the United States is an Indo-Pacific nation” and deeply invested in the broader region, says Alice G. Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
In remarks given at the Foreign Press Center in Washington on Aug. 20,...
Andrew Korybko |
The International Energy Agency forecast that the US could become the world’s top oil exporter by 2024.
The report attributes this to “the incredible strength of its shale industry”, noting that it amounts to “a pivotal milestone that will bring greater diversity of supply in markets.” Although the agency’s full forecast isn’t available for free, it’s still possible to prognosticate...
M K Bhadrakumar |
Three developments in quick succession in the weekend bring closer to a flashpoint the brewing discord between the US and Turkey on account of the latter’s purchase of the S-400 air defence system.
First, Russia disclosed on Friday that the delivery of the S-400 missile defense system will begin within two months. Turkey has made the advance payments and...
Saad Rasool |
The entire edifice of a constitutional parliamentary democracy rests on the premise that the parliament shall function as a conduit to translate the ‘will of the people’ into an enforceable legislative paradigm; that the people’s representatives will utilize their time and energies to improve the fabric of our governance, and debate the issues that concern the everyday...
Farid A Malik |
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan after retiring from service at the age of 55 years decided to bring the Muslims of the Indian Sub-Continent into the mainstream. As a starting point he chose history to lift the morale of his brothers in faith. He requested the intellectual heavyweight of the century Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib to write a foreword...
James M. Dorsey |
If any one part of the world has forced China to throw its long-standing foreign and defense policy principles out the window and increasingly adopt attitudes associated with a global power, it is the greater Middle East, a region that stretches from the Atlantic coast of Africa to north-western China, a swath of land populated by...
Hassan Zaheer |
International politics in contemporary time is characterized by chronic instability and global disorder which are embodied by arch of strategic warfare spread across various continents resulting in destabilization of nation-states; plunging countries into civil wars and anarchy, triggering political conflict by disrupting power play within and economic warfare with additional components of cyber tactics and information control.
These...
Andrew Korybko |
India surprised the world when it announced the first-ever successful completion of its anti-satellite missile test following reports that it first failed to pull off this impressive feat in February. Responsible members of the international community immediately voiced concern about the implications that this development could have for regional strategic security vis-à-vis Pakistan and its Chinese ally, but no sooner were the consequences...
Jawad Falak |
The Straits of Hormuz has taken center stage in world affairs due to the increase in American Iranian tensions. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave a statement on his website that was taken by many as a threat to shut down the important transit point. The statement, “the Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran’s oil...
TIC Analysis |
The Economy of Pakistan was already in a dire state when the current government took office and had to start by seeking a foreign bailout. This time, however, the scale of the bailout needed was much larger than any in the past. The reason for this is an out-of-control trade deficit in recent years, which hit a...
Zafar Nawaz Jaspal |
India’s weapons shopping spree, development of ballistic missile defense systems and continuous upgrading of nuclear arsenal negatively influence the regional strategic stability. Recently, India signed S-400 missiles deal with Russia and also celebrated the September 29, as a Surgical Strike Day to intimidate Pakistan and divert the attention of the opposition from the corruption scandal of...
