Dr Zia Ul Haque Shamsi

Once upon a time, Pakistan was the fastest developing country in the region. Also, Pakistan was a peaceful country which was regularly visited by foreign nationals, continental ships, international airliners etc. Then, erstwhile Soviet Union decide to enter Afghanistan, perhaps to reach warm waters of the Arabian sea through Pakistan’s province of Balochistan. This particular […]

T here has been a lot of talk and writing about hybrid war in the past 2-3 years, though the concept was not new. Perhaps, because Pakistan is under the cloud of hybrid war by India and its like-minded western countries. The same was revealed by European Union’s DisinfoLab recently. However, a lot of damage […]

Appeasement is a failed strategy as part of diplomacy: theoretically, historically, externally, and internally. Theoretically, because there are no permanent friends or foes in the international relations, and it is not practicable to keep everyone happy without compromising on one’s own interests. Historically, Britain’s strategy of appeasement failed to stop Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in […]

The elements of national security in the changed paradigm have been identified and explained by many distinguished philosophers, policymakers, and strategists. The academic writings on the subject since the end of Cold War have insisted on human security rather than physical security. However, the concept of human security as envisaged in Dr Mahbub ul Haq’s […]

Out in the streets of Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, and Karachi, the Pandemic is over because entire population of Pakistan has successfully received two shots of Pfizer vaccine and there is absolutely no risk of getting this deadly infection again. Life has returned to normal and Pakistan has been declared as a COVID-19 free country by […]

The sole purpose of the theorists and strategists at the advent of nuclear deterrence was to avoid a direct military engagement between Cold War rivals: United States (US) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). They understood the consequences of a nuclear conflagration between the two superpowers and spent years devising strategies to avoid a […]

Perhaps my article “Possibility of Peace versus Probability of War” published by Daily Times, Islamabad on February 24, 2021 was read and understood by the politico-military establishments in New Delhi and Islamabad on the same day. Well, I am so happy to imagine that because the very next day some contacts were made between the […]

Politics is the art of the possible, and there are no permanent friends and foe in the international relations. These two golden statements were coined centuries ago by Otto von Bismarck and Lord Palmerston, respectively. However, in South Asian context, these precepts seem to lose relevance. The enduring rivalry between India and Pakistan due to […]

Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, while visiting PAF Station Risalpur on 13 April 1948 said, “A country without a strong Air Force is at the mercy of any aggressor. Pakistan must build up her Air Force as quickly as possible. It must be an efficient Air Force, Second To None.” Quaid’s saying laid the foundations of […]