Far-right-wing conservatism on November 28, 2017Germany has finally abandoned all efforts to be on the left of the centre of the political spectrum. Since 2005, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany has been ruled by centre-right parties, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU). This year, in the general elections held on September 24, a […]
China’s open doors for the US on November 22, 2017The domestic challenge of achieving economic sufficiency is prodding the US to revisit and reset its trade relations internationally. Similarly, emerging international political situations are forcing the US to look for new allies in troubled areas of the world. Sometimes, the US finds convergence in these two challenges embodying one country. US President Donald Trump […]
Conditions based Pak-US relations on November 13, 2017Sometimes it seems that Pakistan is shy about working in collaboration with the US. In the past, under the rubric of ‘hammer and anvil operation’, when the US-NATO forces kept on entreating Pakistan to launch a military operation from its side of the border to crush militancy in the Pak-Afghan border lands, Pakistan preferred to […]
‘American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers’ on November 7, 2017Multilateralism and selective engagement represent the two key United States foreign policy strategies. At least, this is the central premise of Perry Anderson’s book, American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers. Anderson is a British historian, often identified as Western Marxist in leaning. Here, I hope to take a closer look at certain ideas discussed in […]
Tillerson’s visit to Islamabad on October 28, 2017The simple lesson of war is this: it is always better to resolve differences at the negotiation table than on the battlefield. And the sooner really is the better. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew into Islamabad this week, at the behest of Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif. The aim was to get diplomacy back […]
Threat perception’s role in Pak-US relations on October 22, 2017If recent developments offer a means to judge, one can say that Pak-US relations are now at their lowest. The beginning of the lowest ebb of relations is marked by both overt and tacit threats coming from the US to its (now former) ally, Pakistan. In his August 21 policy speech on Afghanistan and the […]
Pak-US relations: the CPEC aspect on October 15, 2017Hardly had anyone remembered how to commit a foreign policy blunder when the US reminded the Asia region of the US ability to do so. The tyranny enacted by the blunder is that it was meant to touching a raw nerve of both Pakistan and China. On October 6, US Defence Secretary James Mattis appeared […]
Khawaja Asif in the US on October 7, 2017Much to the dismay of the conspiracy theorists, Secretary Mattis briefed the Congress with the words that the US was ‘in Afghanistan to make America safer and to ensure South Asia cannot be used to plot transnational attacks against the US homeland or our partners and allies’ Pakistan seems to have travelled a significant distance […]
Civil-military relations: the foreign policy aspect on September 30, 2017Truth is the victim when it is claimed that the civilians and the military in Pakistan are on the same page. They are not, and perhaps they cannot be in the near future. Since 9/11, there have been certain developments, which keep on pulling the civilian half of Pakistan to join the page constructed by […]
Pak-US relations: the safe-havens dip on September 24, 2017Prospects for peace are subservient to the fear of unknown. Each year the month of September discharges this message to the US, which still believes that if 9/11 can visit the US once, it can visit it again. Certainly, the maxim that the ruinous part of history retains the option of and potential for self-replication […]