No better days ahead on June 17, 2019Why is everyone criticising the government? Or the Higher Education Commission? Why is everyone blaming the system? If someone holding a PhD degree cannot get a job, it does not mean that the HEC is responsible. The HEC may be partly responsible. The government, too, may have its part. But overlooking the student part is […]
The ‘Art of the Deal’ isn’t working in the Koreas on May 28, 2018Donald Trump’s recent letter to Kim Jong-un, indicating the cancellation of the Singapore Summit should not be surprising. The Trump-Kim summit was doomed to fail because Trump’s Art of Deal was not going to work with Kim’s North Korea. Was it ever Trump’s initiative? Probably not. It’s Kim’s. History has borne witness to this. North […]
A CPEC for good on March 25, 2018The bliss of CPEC has enveloped the whole town without any doubt. Folks no more ask questions on reliability, feasibility, and viability of the projects it encompasses but rely only on the prescribed mantra of ‘game changer’ for the region in the globalised world. This one may not be a wrong approach when their space […]
Pak-US partnership is going nowhere on November 25, 2017Trump and Sharif are not liable for all the fault lines in Pak-US relationship. Nor are they responsible for all developments and stalemates. Uncertainty has been the hallmark of this relationship. But there are many dimensions to it. Some are evident, while a few exist in a different world where erratic relations rarely matter. The […]
Pakistans poor and helpless professor mafia on August 4, 2017Professor Hoodbhoy’s article on the ‘Professor Mafia’ in Pakistan generated a never-ending debate. And then there was another piece, some solutions to Pakistan’s professor mafia, which highlighted the importance and necessity of ISI-indexed publications. At face, it looks good that people are coming forward with suggestions to improve Pakistan’s fragile higher education system. But what […]
Make America fail, yet again on July 4, 2017YOU may disagree with Max Boot, but I don’t. Considering Donald Trump unfit to be the US president is the shortest possible comment on the Trump presidency so far. Trump has proved himself incapable of leading a nation—a nation that led the world for most of the 20th century. The list of foreign policy mistakes […]
Unpacking CPEC on May 21, 2017The much-discussed and promoted China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a baby with hundreds of parents, at least in Pakistan. The incumbent PML-N government leaves no opportunity to take pride in its successful endeavours, while, at the same time, former president, Asif Ali Zardari, has repeatedly attributed the conception of the CPEC to his government. Regardless […]
New Russia, old aspirations on March 5, 2014Russia has always been different from the rest of the world in regards to making its defence policy. For centuries, it sought (traditional) security by dominating immediate neighbours and then their neighbours until the demise of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Now it is unable to enjoy this benefit in the contemporary […]
Appeasement will not work on February 26, 2014Appeasement never works! Ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia provoke violence and, in response, the German Chancellor decides to place the German troops along the Czech border. The UK, the declining regional hegemon, intervenes in the dispute and ultimately cedes the Czech territory to the seemingly offensive Germany in order to avoid another war and obviously […]
Making a historic deal on November 28, 2013The latest round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran resulted in a historic deal between the negotiating parties, especially the US and Iran. The interim deal that curbs further development in Iran’s nuclear programme in return for limited relief from nuclear-related sanctions is likely to be a preliminary draft of the final accord, which […]