Irans nuclear ambitions and the US on November 28, 2014No one should be in any doubt that the US would like to remove the current regime in Iran. For more than three decades, the US has maintained an aggressive posture against Iran. It has forced sanctions on Iran and has frozen Iranian assets in the US. Iranians believe that the frozen assets are now […]
Working with India on Kashmir on November 15, 2014Retired General Ashok K Mehta of the Indian army, in a recent article, succinctly wrote: “Indian politicians do not understand the games that are played on the Line of Control (LoC) and the tit-for-tat score scratching that goes on. Indian and Pakistani media love to blame the other side as the instigator for the ongoing […]
The long shadow of Afghanistan on October 28, 2014Unpacking the details of US-Pak relations is complicated. Still, the view that the US needs Pakistan to continue its efforts in Afghanistan lacks any merit. The perception, supported in some segments of the elite and the media, ignores the fact that the US’s decision to invade Afghanistan was not dependent on Pakistan’s cooperation. The US […]
Turkeys military problem: lessons for others on October 9, 2014Confessing to Hasan Cemal, Süleyman Demirel said, “I was physically abused by the army twice. One cannot do anything without them.” Süleyman Demirel was seven times Turkey’s prime minister and president from 1993 to 2000. His confession appeared in Hasan Cemal’s seminal work on Turkey’s politics, Turkey’s Military Problem. Hasan Cemal, a respected journalist and […]
The losing ideological battles on September 26, 2014Sifting the obscure from the obvious often takes considerable effort. Usually the flawed process of information dissemination, lack of gauging the public mood and a hampered decision-making process results in crises escalating way beyond intended goals. Civil-military relations in Pakistan are complicated. A glimmer of hope recently emerged of how uninterrupted civilian governments would turn […]
Crises that will not go away on September 7, 2014Whether unpredictable Pakistani politics might deliver some surprises after days of intense drama is not yet certain. The widely televised event that has kept viewers glued to their sets could climax soon. The two groups leading the high voltage act could not find enough traction to deliver the desired end. Still, it brought some fundamental […]