June 2021

Revival of Quad Possibilities and Prospect The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also referred to as Quad, is a strategic consultation framework between the United States, Australia, Japan and India. The Quad began nearly seventeen years ago (in 2004) with joint response to tangible and urgent crisis, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. For nine days in December 2004 and January …

India’s Options in Post-Withdrawal Afghanistan The US military has started its complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, marking what amounts to the beginning of the end of the United States’ nearly 20-year-old war in the country. But, as expected, this withdrawal is not smooth as fierce fighting between government forces and the Taliban erupted after the US military began withdrawing its remaining …

Covid-19 Crisis  and Rich Countries Most of this reasoning was speculative. But by the late summer of 2020, two clear trends were emerging. While parts of Western Europe were enduring a devastating first wave of Covid-19 cases, Africa and south Asia were experiencing a slow-moving, sometimes stalling rate of infection and a comparatively low death toll. Those trends are now …

China’s Own Space Station China has launched a core module of its own space station, moving a step closer to the finishing touches on the country’s decades-old manned space program. Encased in the extra-large fairing of the country’s state-of-the-art Long March-5B launch vehicle, the 16.6-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe (literally meaning Harmony in Heaven) core module, rose from the tropical island province …

Biden’s Address to US Congress America is Rising anew On April 28, President Joe Biden addressed a joint session of US Congress. “America is on the move again,” President Biden said, acknowledging that he took office in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and what he called the “worst …

The Modi-fied INDIA Dissecting Modi’s New India Driven by RSS ideology whose rallying cry since its inception has been ‘Hindu’ ‘Hindi’ and ‘Hindustan’, Modi-led BJP wants to sculpt a Hindu rashtra or Sangh parivar to realize its supremacist ambitions. And, in this pursuit, the ruling dispensation has left no stone unturned to translate its dreams into reality. Oddly enough, the …

MICHAEL COLLINS The ‘forgotten’ astronaut of Apollo 11 American astronaut Michael Collins, who as pilot of the Apollo 11 command module stayed behind on July 20, 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled to the lunar surface to become the first humans to walk on the moon, died on April 28 at age 90. Often described as the “forgotten” …

ISRAEL’S IRON DOME Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system has been the object of lavish praise in Western media outlets over the past few days, as the Israeli military bombards Gaza and uses the system to shoot down rockets fired by Palestinian groups into Israeli territory. However, according to open sources, Israel underwent the longest-reaching rocket assault in its history at …

Gaza Bleeds, Again Who will hold Israel accountable for its war crimes?

PAKISTAN TO HOST WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2021 June 05, Pakistan will host, for the very first time in its history, the World Environment Day. This year’s observance of World Environment Day with the collaboration of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will be on the theme of ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ and will focus on resetting our relationship with nature. It will also …