Study Kit

David Brewster China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is carving out new pathways across the Eurasian continent, signifying Beijing’s ambitions to remake the world around it.  This project, if implemented, will fundamentally change China’s role and relationships in South Asia, perhaps in some ways that are not intended. In the Indian Ocean region, OBOR has two aspects. One is …

Li Xing The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as a flagship project of the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, has drawn a great deal of investments. Apart from the fact that Pakistan has approved a Russian request for using the Gwadar Port, located in Balochistan Province, for its exports, media reports were swirling that Russia planned to merge the …

Dr Antonio Perra As the war in Syria tragically approaches its sixth anniversary, the world looks with consternation at the most recent developments in Aleppo — a once-glorious city now turned, in Ban Ki-Moon’s words, into a “synonym for hell.” The Russian-Syrian campaign to regain control of the last major urban center still held by rebel forces has unleashed a …

The British government of Theresa May officially adopted on Dec. 12 a new definition of anti-Semitism that includes legitimate criticism of Israel. The definition was adopted earlier in the year by a pro-Israeli group IHRA, although it was considered but abandoned by the European anti-racism agency in 2005. It is also a rather dangerous move which will most likely lead …

The self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has changed into a global threat and blackmails the entire world. The civil unrest and political tensions in Iraq and Syria paved the ground for the emergence of ISIL and left them a free room for practicing their radical ideology. The violence and bloodshed caused by ISIL group outraged the …

As climate changes, water Shortages are likely to fuel certain conflicts in many region around the world. According to some political analysts, “Water Wars” are becoming inevitable in the world’s future as the misuse of water resources continues among countries that share the same water source. International law has proven itself inadequate in defending the equal use of shared water …

By Imdad Hussain At the dawn of the New Year, the fresh case of Syria proved that the world order led by a superpower is drastically failing as a stabilising factor; with the volatile Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan being further instances of busted peace. Failure of the unipolarism in Syria was established with its recognition being evident in the US-led …

By Raashid Wali Janjua Climate change and its concomitant natural disasters pose a clear danger to national security in the present era of the hyper-utilisation of natural resources in the unbridled pursuit of industrial development. The developed industrialised haves – having appropriated the fruits of development – are not ready to render a yeoman’s service to the environment through ‘carbon …

Gil Troy History tries correcting the tricks memory plays on us—while respecting memory’s power. Thomas Jefferson is famous for writing the Declaration of Independence during the Revolution—although he served as Virginia’s governor during the war too. Paul Revere is best known for his Midnight Ride in 1775—although the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow coined the phrase “One if by land, two …

By SIMON WINCHESTER THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND THE MIDDLE KINGDOM America and China, 1776 to the Present By John Pomfret Illustrated. 693 pp. Henry Holt & Company. $40. Donald Trump (or his next secretary of state) would be well advised to read this timely and comprehensively informative book, since no foreign topic will engage the 45th president more acutely than …