Int’l Affairs

On 14 July 2015, a historic deal named Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was struck between Iran and P5+1 — the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany that have negotiated with Iran about its nuclear program since 2006 — in Austrian capital Vienna. The deal brought much hope and joy in Iran, particularly with promises of an …

After a long, long wait, on July 6, Sir John Chilcot, the head of the Committee of Privy Counsellors which was empowered by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to conduct an inquiry  into the Iraq war in 2009, finally came out with his report on the UK’s role in the war and its aftermath. The contents of …

Straddling Europe and Asia, with a Muslim population and a secular government, Turkey faces extraordinary political, economic and social pressures. Its secular-minded military has long seen itself as the “guardian of Turkish democracy,” which it defines as the staunchly secular state created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic. The military had overthrown the government at …

Will the transition of leadership in the Taliban and the Afghan government’s peace agreement with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami help reduce the unity government’s frustration? The two-year term of the political agreement between Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah that was brokered by US Secretary of State, John Kerry, on September 21, 2014 to settle the dispute of presidential election …

On May 21, Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. By resorting to the mantra that Mullah Mansour was a major hurdle in the peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and Kabul, the American and Afghan officials have apparently heralded new prospects for peace in the war-torn Afghanistan but …

With the US shoehorning India’s aspiration for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Pakistan’s stance has to, besides being diplomatically crafted, situate itself into the corpus of rules that has the feature of being styled as the international nuclear law. These rules may be found in the criteria, if any, for the membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group read …

If we want larger countries to respect our sovereignty, we must respect the sovereignty of smaller countries.” — Mani Shankar Aiyar (Former Indian Diplomat) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed two years in office on 25th May 2016. Since taking over as the Prime Minister of India, Modi has visited more than 40 countries in order to boost India’s image …

 “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” —  Sir Winston Churchill On April 28, the lower chamber of the French Parliament passed a resolution that called on the government to cancel the sanctions against Russia …

At present, the United States is in a state of disarray. Country’s economic and political elites are still trying to recapture and reproduce the Gilded Age — the final three decades of the nineteenth century which was one of the most dynamic, contentious, and volatile periods in American history — at a time when an overwhelming majority of Americans is …

Despite Washington’s full-throttle support all around, India’s application for membership in the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has again been filed for the ninth consecutive year without any decision. Though it was not on its agenda, some of India’s supporters did raise the questionable question of its entry into the exclusive nuclear trading club at the NSG’s latest annual plenary …