What Mao’s Failures Reveal About Centralizing Control Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), scored a total victory at the 20th Party Congress in mid-October. He not only secured an unprecedented, though widely expected, third five-year term but also managed to fill the Politburo and its Standing Committee with loyalists. In a display of raw political […]

Pakistan on Monday reopened Chaman border crossing with Afghanistan for trade and pedestrian movement after shutting it down a week earlier following a border shooting. The shooting took place on November 13 at the Spin Boldak – Chaman crossing. One Pakistani border guard was killed in the incident. Pakistan immediately closed the crossing causing heavy losses to traders and stranding […]

Markus Potzel, Head of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is in Tajikistan to discuss options to strengthen cooperation between regional countries and Afghanistan. In a tweet on Sunday, UNAMA said the deputy head had arrived in Dushanbe for meetings with officials from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan where he will “discuss options to help strengthen regional cooperation with Afghanistan and […]

Using the option of pressure will not help, Amir Khan Muttaqi, foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), said at a meeting in Kabul with Norway’s charge d’affaires Paul Coleman Bakr. The foreign minister said that the international community should adopt the policy of engagement and cooperation with Afghanistan. He said that history shows that pressuring Afghanistan doesn’t […]