Int’l Affairs

Pakistan is a legal product. The nexus of its polity with constitutional and legal matters is unfathomable insofar as its composition, structure, spirit, ideology, characteristics and its borders are concerned. In terms of its composition and structure, the centrality of constitutional law cannot be underestimated. Likewise, in relation to its ideology, its relationship with Islamic Law (Shariah) and the relationship …

By:Uzair Salman “With hindsight, it seems evident that the costs of the strategy of preventing defeat were incalculable. But at the time of the crucial decisions, the costs of accepting defeat appeared to be incalculable. The system in this case coped as democracies usually do: by compromising between extreme choices, satisfying the partisans of neither extreme of opinion within the …

A remote corner of the Himalayas has become the scene of a major power standoff between China and India. In June 2017, the Doklam plateau in the Himalayas, where the boundaries of China, India and Bhutan meet, made headlines when Indian and Chinese troops began a standoff over a road construction project. As of now, neither side is spoiling for …

Introduction The history of criminal justice system reform efforts especially vis-à-vis police, the most important component of the system, has been replete with administrative efforts in both India and Pakistan. In case of Pakistan, as many as 21 commissions/committees/initiatives relating to police reforms were recorded till the year 2000. The implementation of these reforms is, however, a challenge in both …

Against the will of the nine nuclear weapon states that boycotted the United Nations negotiations, 122 countries voted to adopt, on 7 July, the text of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Treaty, which is an internationally legally-binding document that would ban the signatories from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, possessing, transferring, stockpiling, hosting or using nuclear weapons, …

The international system seems heading toward a period of great uncertainty. Established security alliances of the post-World War II era are disintegrating while the fledgling new ones such as the G20 have no capacity to replace them. The dominant discourse of market-friendly neoliberalism is losing prominence while neo-protectionism and economic nationalism are gaining ground. Amidst rising geopolitical tensions among major …

From Donald Trump’s first days in office, news of the damage to America’s international stature has come hard and fast. As if guided by some malign design, the new president seemed to identify the key pillars that have supported US global power for the past 70 years and set out to topple each of them in turn. By degrading NATO, …

Donald Trump has probably never heard of the Grand Old Duke of York and his 10,000 men. But in spelling out his new Afghan strategy, the US president gave a good impersonation of that symbol of military muddle-headedness, incompetence and futility immortalised in the English nursery rhyme. By marching US troops back up the Afghan hill, having previously solemnly vowed …

There have been many periods of heightened tension between North Korea and the United States over the years, especially in April and August, when South Korea and the United States conducted joint military exercises that North Korea considered preparation for an invasion. A physical engagement between the two nations still looks highly unlikely, but it is something that serious analysts …

Saudi Arabia’s severing of ties with Qatar has laid bare the schisms in the Arab world. The crisis in this diplomatic relationship has huge implications for the region as Saudis, along with some other Gulf states, are heading toward a collision and it vividly exposes Saudi Arabia’s aspirations in the Middle East. So far, all diplomatic efforts to diffuse the …