Int’l Affairs

On September 28, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), during its meeting in Algiers, the Algerian capital, agreed to reduce oil output to a range of 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day from the current output of 33.24 million bpd. It is for the first time in eight years that the oil cartel has decided to lower output. Saudi Arabia, …

The intent behind Narendra Modi’s unprecedented ‘love’ for Afghanistan is no more a secret now. With an overt mission to destabilize Pakistan, Modi has poured in huge sums of money as ‘investments in Afghanistan’s future’ and has vowed that his country will extend cooperation to every part of war-torn Afghanistan despite facing barriers of politics, geography and terror attacks on …

Americans elect a president every four years and quite interestingly every time, the campaign-finance experts predict that it’s going to be the most expensive election in country’s history. This year’s election is also no exception as it has already been estimated that the 2016 election is going to be the most expensive in history. As per estimates, these will cost …

The 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly recently kicked off in New York, USA.  At the UNGA session many global and regional issues will be discussed. However, it is also an undeniable reality that a host of such issues could have been solved had the United Nations, with all its organs, played its due role. Although it has …

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) is now the law of the United States. After months of warnings from President Obama, legal and international affairs experts and foreign leaders, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill on September 9. This act of the Congress began a game of legislative ping-pong between the President and the Congress …

After the great Western victory over the Soviet Union in 1991, many echoed Francis Fukuyama’s view that the future belonged to liberal democratic states. And, much like after the Western victories in two World Wars, there was a period of significant expansion of democratic regimes around the world after 1991. But, now, 25 years after the dissolution of the Soviet …

“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.” —Strobe Talbot, Former Deputy Secretary of State (As quoted in Time, July 20th, l992) When a Nato commander warns that the West is on course for an armed conflict with Russia, …

In an era rocked by terrorist attacks, a massive refugee crisis, and ongoing political upheavals, António Guterres has become the world’s top diplomat, Secretary General of the United Nations. Encouraged by more than 13 countries and discouraged by none, Mr Guterres is the first former head of government to become UN chief. Mr Guterres’s nomination initially caught the international community …

By Sirajuddin Aziz Should managers and supervisors give feedback? Does it help? How frequently should feedback be given? The answer to the first two interrogative sentence is a loud ‘yes’ and to the third interrogative remark, it depends upon requirement to do so but most commonly it is associated with annual appraisal exercise. Doing this exercise once a year, is …

The South China Sea has been a source of tensions between several East Asian countries for decades. The fears are growing that the area will become a flashpoint, with potentially serious global consequences since the rivalry between China and the United States, which apparently backs its ‘ally’ the Philippines, is on the rise. The ruling from the International Tribunal for …