Pakistan hopes designation will shrink space for proscribed group ISLAMABAD:The United States on Tuesday declared the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a global terrorist organisation in a significant development, which Pakistan hopes will ensure the “BLA’s space to operate is minimised”. The US State Department, confirming the decision, said it was classifying the BLA as a global terrorist group, making […]

It’s surprising how much time Bloomberg’s writers invested in correcting their audience’s perceptions about the North-South Transport Corridor, which they should sincerely be commended for doing. The only constructive critiques that can be leveled against their report is that it should have been published much earlier and that it predictably ends on the politically self-interested note of implying that the […]

The challenge ahead is a formidable one that will require the military-intelligence services to fully focus on this newly metastasized terrorist threat in order to emerge victorious, which in turn necessitates their top brass giving them the order to abandon the all-out nationwide crackdown against the opposition. Pakistan’s prior large-scale anti-terrorist operations succeeded precisely because those carrying them out weren’t […]

While the Pakistani-Taliban security dilemma owes its origins to “innocent” misperceptions of the other that were previously manageable since neither suspected that any adversarial third party was meddling in these mutually sensitive issues, this dynamic has now evolved to the point where both suspect their counterparts of colluding with their hated enemy (if not outright being under their influence) in […]

Since April 11, Pakistan’s political situation is still volatile and with every passing day the crisis worsens. In an exclusive interview with Reporter’s Diary, American Moscow-based political analyst Andrew Korybko, comprehensively discussed the current political situation of Pakistan, the regime change operation and the role of the Establishment. The future of Pakistan-Russia relations is also part of the discussion. Question […]

The Balochistan Liberation Army claims at least one of the attacks, with past similar incidents staged by them. More than 70 people have been killed in four assaults amid several reported incidents of violence in Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, according to military and police officials.

It’s unrealistic that China would ever abandon its investments in Russia or Pakistan, but those two’s connectivity roles for it vis-à-vis the EU and West Asia/Africa respectively can be complemented by Turkey and Iran via the Middle Corridor. Up until the beginning of this year, China’s grand strategy was to rely on a network of connectivity corridors across its Belt […]

While China expresses public support for Iran’s right to “defend its sovereignty,” Beijing’s assertive rhetoric belies deep-seated anxiety surrounding the possibility of a wider regional conflict erupting. Not long after Iran vowed revenge against Israel following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took to the phone and told his Iranian counterpart, Ali […]

Indo-Pacific is a term with a long history within the imperialist lexicon. It originated in the writings of Karl Haushofer, the leading German geopolitical theorist, in his 1924 Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean and numerous other works.1 Haushofer was a German military attaché in Japan in 1908–1909, and traveled widely in East Asia. As a result of these experiences, he […]

At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation starting September 4, Beijing will once again seek to deepen its engagement with countries in the Global South. Chinese leader Xi Jinping was, to his credit, prescient in recognizing the frustrations and aspirations within the developing world and has capitalized on those sentiments to build China’s global political and economic influence. The three-day event, […]