Manila has fully allied with Washington amid increasingly dangerous standoffs with Beijing in the South China Sea, heightening the prospect of a wider war. Why has the South China Sea become a source of contention in the region? Chinese leader Xi Jinping has continually projected China’s strength abroad, particularly in Asia, most notably to safeguard Beijing’s “core interests,” which includes […]

China has strategically pushed into education, culture, media, and art—especially in the Kazakh language. PrefaceChina Local/Global China has become a global power, but there is too little debate about how this has happened and what it means. Many argue that China exports its developmental model and imposes it on other countries. But Chinese players also extend their influence by working […]

Proclaiming 10 years of Make in India a big success, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goel was euphoric to claim India more competent than China+1 strategy. He said, “India is competitive, not dependent on China+1”, focusing Ease of Doing Business and improving India’s ranking. Incidentally, Commerce Minster’ claim turned over-emphatic. South East Asia emerged a more attractive destination for foreign […]

In recent years, Pakistan has strategically shifted its foreign policy focus from geo-politics to geo-economics, prioritizing economic cooperation, trade, and energy partnerships, particularly with the Central Asian Republics (CARs). This pivot aligns with Pakistan’s broader vision to emerge as a regional trade and energy hub, taking advantage of its strategic location besides affording the landlocked Central Asian nation’s access to […]

On September 24, 2024, on the occasion of the laying down of arms by two prominent insurgent outfits – the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) – in Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha, stated, “Now onward we could declare that there is zero insurgency in Tripura.” He also remarked that the current development […]

On September 25, 2024, a 50-year-old villager, Soyam Pandu, was thrashed to death by armed cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in Bhandarpadar village in the Bhejji area in Sukma District. The Maoists had barged into his house, dragged him out, and beat him in front of family members and villagers. Maoists suspected that Pandu worked against them […]

Mujahid said among those arrested was a Tajikistan national, who had been planning to carry out a suicide bombing. Islamic Emirate special forces have arrested key members of an insurgent group responsible for a number of attacks including the one on foreign tourists in Bamiyan province in May this year. IEA spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Monday […]

An army with a state In her seminal piece titled “Pakistan-from hybrid-democracy to hybrid-martial law” published in the 2019 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistan born and UK based leading expert on the Pakistan armed forces made some very pertinent and precise observations of how the all-powerful Pakistan army was continuing its subtle subversion […]

In the latest issue of its Urdu-language magazine “Taliban,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) eulogizes slain fighters, argues that it is ahead of the Pakistani military in building narratives in the eyes of Pakistani audiences, frames Pakistani military leaders as those who monopolize resources and obstruct the establishment of Islam, and says that the TTP should not be viewed as a terrorist […]