For Indian politicians, it is time again for temple runs as five crucial states, including the largest, Uttar Pradesh in the north, prepare to go to the polls in the first quarter of 2022. And besides making a public display of offering flowers and milk to a plethora of gods, the usual election talk to polarize the electorate into majority […]

Sun Tzu, the pioneer of Chinese military thought and author of the famed treatise ‘The Art of War’, has influenced China’s strategy. With the objective of weakening the enemy, Sun Tzu propagated several measures to ensure the outcome of any conflict would be predetermined. “Ultimate excellence lies, not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting. […]

The United States spent millions of dollars on Afghanistan over 20 years, with a prop up a government that would build a nation-state. With the Taliban attacks and the destruction of the state-building process, the US and its allies could no longer bear the brunt to remain engaged in Afghanistan. This led to negotiations with the Taliban. As soon as […]

With Afghan Taliban now controlling neighbouring Afghanistan, Waziristan residents say they fear a return to life under Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Every night, Muhammad Nadeem gathers his weary body and begins the first watch. His rifle across his lap, he sits at the entrance of his home in the northwestern Pakistani town of Tank and waits. Periodically, he will walk around the […]

Members of the Haqqani family and Paktia residents have laid the first foundation stone for a new madrassa, that will be named after the network’s founding father Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani. The religious studies school will be built on four acres of land in Gardez city in Paktia province and is being sponsored by local businessmen. Haqqani officials said Wednesday this […]

How the Taliban’s Takeover Is Inspiring Other Jihadis As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan this summer, all eyes were on their fighters as they triumphed over the Afghan security forces, which surrendered in large numbers as the Taliban rapidly advanced. But the Taliban’s victory did not happen overnight, and it did not come about because of the group’s military might […]

Over 100,000 Indian and Chinese troops are preparing to spend another brutal winter confronting each other at high altitudes along the Indian-Chinese border. A year and a half after Chinese soldiers seized territory on the boundary, preventing Indian patrols from going where they had gone for years, both sides have increased military deployments, accelerated the construction of permanent infrastructure throughout […]

How Will China’s Bureaucrats Interpret His Call for “Common Prosperity?” In the seven decades during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been in power, its leaders have often articulated their visions and signature platforms using lofty rhetoric and vague slogans. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping spoke of pursuing “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” In the first decade of this century, […]

What began as a friendly relationship between India and China on April 1, 1950, when India became the first non-socialist bloc country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, has now evolved into the region’s most dangerous adversary. The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) encouraged Tibet’s uprising against China, eventually seizing control of the fledgling resistance […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) forces seized dozens of weapons on Monday in Paktika province that were being smuggled into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. According to a statement issued by the Paktika governor’s office, IEA forces seized 38 different types of weapons in the Angoor Ada area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. “The weapons were placed in a Datsun-type mini […]