January 2015

Foreign policy of a nation is always predicated on where you want to go as a sovereign nation and an independent state. This is the basic determinant of a country’s foreign policy. In our case, at the time of our independence, like Alice in Wonderland, we just did not know which way to go and this turned out to be …

Contemporary world is fraught with perpetuated violence and killings to undermine the sustainability of mankind’s future. Complex societal conflicts need rational and flexible strategies using men of new ideas, diplomacy and peaceful means to conflict management. War is not a prelude to peacemaking. The sadistic warriors are using obsessive power to victimize the global humanity. Tim Roemer in his article …

South Asia hosts eight Saarc states namely Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. The region comprises most ancient cultures in the world, housing over a fifth of population. South Asia holds a significant strategic importance because of its geography (warm water access and numerous resources) and strategic location. The region became more significant after India and …

The basic feature of US foreign policy during the Cold War was inclusiveness — a willingness to embrace any country that opposed communism, whatever its type of government. The US contested the Soviet system and held the line militarily, and its consistent and comprehensive approach eventually led to the Soviet Union’s implosion. After the Cold War, came the “war on …

Since the withdrawal of Nato and Isaf forces from the war-torn Afghanistan is in the offing, and the country is entering into yet another transformative period, a grand international conference, the London Conference on Afghanistan, where the world met to discuss how to help tackle Afghanistan’s many problems, was held in London on December 4, 2014. The Conference was jointly …

The US-Pakistan relations are characterized by increasing divergence between the two countries rather than the convergence. A potential convergence also exists on the end game in Afghanistan and a strategic cooperation leading to a broad partnership in other spheres but it will take a Herculean effort on both sides to overcome their differences. This relationship has served some important interests …

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a development programme to connect Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan to China’s north-western region of Xinjiang via highways, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas. Economic corridor is not only the road to economic prosperity for Pakistan, it can also be termed as future of the world. It is estimated that about 3 billion people …

Times come in life when the barbarity we witness is so heart-wrenching and horrific that we are dreaded. We feel grief to such an extent that we do not have any words to describe our feelings. The appalling as well as horrendous, to say the least, Peshawar Carnage has left everyone of us weeping and mourning the brutal killing of …

The unprecedented two-week visit to the US by Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, during which he held parleys with the US military authorities, security establishment and Secretary of State John Kerry has been in the limelight with regard to its purpose as well as the outcome. In his interaction with the top military and civil officials, the COAS …

William Dalrymple’s “deadly triangle” that comprises India, Pakistan and Afghanistan is going through a number of important events these days and the developments might give regional peace and stability some trying times ahead. But, the question arises here that whether the region would continue to face the same old challenges when the new leadership is at the helm in these …