With Afghan Taliban now controlling neighbouring Afghanistan, Waziristan residents say they fear a return to life under Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Every night, Muhammad Nadeem gathers his weary body and begins the first watch. His rifle across his lap, he sits at the entrance of his home in the northwestern Pakistani town of Tank and waits. Periodically, he will walk around the […]

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan more than three and a half months ago amid a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, their fighters have changed roles, from insurgents fighting in the mountains and fields to an armed force running the country. Many Taliban foot soldiers now have new jobs: manning checkpoints on the streets and carrying out security […]

The head of India’s armed forces, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed on Wednesday when the military helicopter they were travelling in crashed, the air force said, Reuters reported. According to the report they were en route from an air force base to a hillside military college in the southern state of Tamil Nadu when the Russian-made Mi-17V5 […]

Members of the Haqqani family and Paktia residents have laid the first foundation stone for a new madrassa, that will be named after the network’s founding father Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani. The religious studies school will be built on four acres of land in Gardez city in Paktia province and is being sponsored by local businessmen. Haqqani officials said Wednesday this […]

How the Taliban’s Takeover Is Inspiring Other Jihadis As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan this summer, all eyes were on their fighters as they triumphed over the Afghan security forces, which surrendered in large numbers as the Taliban rapidly advanced. But the Taliban’s victory did not happen overnight, and it did not come about because of the group’s military might […]

Over 100,000 Indian and Chinese troops are preparing to spend another brutal winter confronting each other at high altitudes along the Indian-Chinese border. A year and a half after Chinese soldiers seized territory on the boundary, preventing Indian patrols from going where they had gone for years, both sides have increased military deployments, accelerated the construction of permanent infrastructure throughout […]

How Will China’s Bureaucrats Interpret His Call for “Common Prosperity?” In the seven decades during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been in power, its leaders have often articulated their visions and signature platforms using lofty rhetoric and vague slogans. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping spoke of pursuing “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” In the first decade of this century, […]

What began as a friendly relationship between India and China on April 1, 1950, when India became the first non-socialist bloc country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, has now evolved into the region’s most dangerous adversary. The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) encouraged Tibet’s uprising against China, eventually seizing control of the fledgling resistance […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in India Monday for a summit as Moscow begins the delivery of air defense missile systems to India that could spur U.S. sanctions. India’s $5.4 billion deal with Russia to purchase S-400 air defense missile systems highlights New Delhi’s challenge in maintaining its partnership with Moscow, even as it embraces closer strategic ties with the […]

With the Taliban governing in Kabul it is likely that the central command of al-Qaeda as a global Jihadist structure will find Afghanistan and Pakistan a much more permissive space for planning new attacks in the western world, something that in the short and medium term will have a greater impact on European societies. Since the mid-1990s the Afghan Taliban […]