Over the last two years, Tehran has sought to increase its influence in Central Asia, convinced that changes in the region and more broadly make that an important goal; and it views Tajikistan, a country with which it shares some but far from all cultural characteristics, as a key player who can help it to do so, Yevgeny Troitsky says. […]

Following the concerns over terrorist threats from Afghanistan, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says in a report that terrorist threats against US interests from Afghanistan and Pakistan are steadily rising. The report stated that “Afghanistan presents growing space for terrorist groups compared to the period before the U.S. withdrawal.” “ISIS-K [Daesh] presents a rising threat with reach beyond […]

Thousands of innocent civilians are dying– men, women, children– being bombed to death as they sit in their homes. Thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men have been unwillingly drafted into the military, torn from their families, forced to kill each other, and forced to die. Images and videos of cold-blooded genocide plague our news in a constant loop, and our […]

The Mainstream Media and Alt-Media Communities have long suspected that something of the sort was going on behind the scenes, albeit each for their own ideological reasons, but the reality is altogether different than both media camps popularly present it as being. Bloomberg cited unnamed “people familiar with the matter” to report on Saturday that “China Providing Geospatial Intelligence to […]

China has the biggest maritime force on the globe with an inventory of about 355 vessels, according to a Defense Department report released Wednesday. With 355 ships in its fleet, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is slated to expand its inventory to 420 ships within the next four years, the Pentagon’s annual China military report estimates. By 2030, the […]

Business cannot be the economy’s savior, but it can help stabilize the situation with support from donors and the Taliban. Three years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country’s economy remains in a dismal state marked by depression-level price deflation, high unemployment and a collapse of GDP. Still, while the bad news for Afghans is well known, less […]

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Pakistan on 22 April for a three-day visit at the invitation of President Asif Ali Zardari, the first by an Iranian leader in eight years. During the trip, the two countries signed eight agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to strengthen their security and economic ties. The geopolitical backdrop to the visit was, however, […]

Summary:The ongoing African Growth and Opportunity Act reauthorization process could facilitate the expansion of U.S.-Africa trade in critical minerals. Introduction The United States is currently seeking to source the supplies of minerals and metals that are “critical” to support its clean energy transition and diversify the attendant supply chains away from geopolitical competitors.1 African countries have many of these critical […]

Great-Power Competition No Longer Dominates the Region’s Politics The competition over Asia’s so-called swing states is heating up. China’s growing economic and political reach has impelled Australia, India, Japan, and the United States to try to gain influence in the countries not yet tightly aligned with either bloc. U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly characterized Asia as a battleground between […]

The National People’s Congress meeting in China takes place every year in March and this year it was during the week of 4-11 March. It is called Two Sessions (or liang hui in Chinese) as the National People’s Congress and the China People’s Political Consultative Conference take place simultaneously and set the agenda for the year. These are different from […]