Around the world, people are very worried about Afghanistan’s security, especially since terrorist groups like the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are still there and moving around. Thomas West, who works for America in Afghanistan, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for Central Asia about those severe fears. West’s comments show that those terrorist […]

Summary In response to an international context U.S. President Joe Biden has described as an overarching struggle between democracy and autocracy, his administration has set out to support democracy globally as a major foreign policy priority. This effort has entailed grappling with three daunting challenges: a global democratic recession involving dozens of cases of democratic backsliding or collapse; the rising […]

EU Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas Nicholson on Tuesday met with Abdulhaq Akhund, deputy minister of interior affairs for counter-narcotics, where the two sides discussed this issue of drugs in the country, the ministry said in a statement. At the meeting, Abdulhaq Akhund said to keep future generations safe, the cultivation, smuggling and sale of drugs must be seriously prevented […]

The Pakistani economy has always been a delicate tightrope walk, riddled with challenges and precariously balanced between progress and peril. Recent events, however, have ignited a fiery debate regarding the nation’s financial trajectory, thrusting two starkly contrasting narratives into the spotlight. On one side stands the legacy of Imran Khan’s ousted government, is remembered by many for bold reforms and […]

On January 30, 2024, three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and another 15 sustained injuries in a gunfight with Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres along the Sukma-Bijapur border in Bijapur District. The gunfight erupted when the CRPF personnel were working to establish a Forward Operating Base (FOB) – a remote camp meant to facilitate Security Forces […]

On February 1, 2024, a violent mob desecrated an Ahmadi grave at Sahwala village in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab. Filmmaker and activist Ali Raza on X (formerly Twitter) brought attention to the incident, stating, “There are reports of Maulvis in Sheikhupura excavating an Ahmadi grave and vandalizing the tombstone. These are the same impoverished individuals we assist through charity, […]

In a recent long opinion article for the New York Times, pundit Thomas Friedman announces “a titanic geopolitical struggle between two opposing networks of nations and nonstate actors over whose values and interests will dominate our post-Cold war world.” (NY Times, January 26, 2024, p. A26). This perception is not silly. The essentially unipolar hegemony enjoyed by the United States […]

Earlier this month, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists published its annual assessment of China’s nuclear forces. The authors of the latest assessment state that China has gone through significant expansion and modernization of its nuclear forces as well as enhancing the size of its arsenal. Despite the relative lack of transparency involving China’s nuclear weapons program, which makes it difficult […]

While the U.S., Russia and Europe are trying to quell (or aggravate) crises simultaneously in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Israel/Gaza, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea/Yemen, Uzbekistan and China have quietly elevated their partnership. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a state visit to China on Jan. 23-25, visiting Beijing and Shenzen. While there he met with China’s President Xi Jinping […]

Risks are integral to nations’ pursuits of their national interests. However, today, the risks have magnified and diversified amid rising extraneous challenges and their knock-on effects, ranging from environmental degradation and global warming to humanitarian disasters and wars. Added to the mix is the growing misuse of economic leverage by countries like China as part of their foreign policy to […]