How to end our long war? on December 24, 2018According to a Rand Study on “Long War” the concept of a “Long War” is akin to an asymmetric war against non- state actors resorting to insurgencies and terrorism to challenge the Western dominance of the world in the fields of politics, economy, and military prowess. The Long War is a consequence of a post […]
Last Tango in Kabul on December 11, 2018Has the end game for the US Afghan Project begun on the dusty mountain fastness of Afghanistan? The answer to above question might lie in the recent peace overtures of US towards feral Afghan Taliban who were once touted as the living embodiment of terrorism and for whose defeat the US had launched one of […]
The Kartarpur dream on December 3, 2018Kartarpur Shrine, the sacred place of Sikh pilgrimage on an ordinary day is quite a spectacle. Its pearl white domes and minarets shine brightly pitted against the emerald green fields of Punjab presenting a surreal look. Wreathed in white spiritual glow of its marbled splendour the shrine is as much an architectural marvel as it […]
How to win a hybrid war on November 25, 2018Hybrid Warfare is the new fashionable big idea that connotes a war on several fronts. These fronts may range from economy, cyber, media, ideology, to military muscle. Most of the current military scholars writing about this concept conflate regular and irregular warfare as two big prongs of hybrid warfare, wherein multiple threats like ideological subversion, […]
National priorities and institutions on November 19, 2018Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have averred in “Why Nations Fail” that the nations fail not because of the geography, culture, and resources but the lack of inclusive political institutions. Nations like Pakistan that have inherited functional, albeit colonially grafted institutions, fail to develop inclusive institutions that combine participatory governance with the state objectives. Instead […]
Our extremism problem on November 9, 2018Two passions as per Bertrand Russell threaten human reason and emotional stability like no other earthy passion. These include politics and religion. While politics has the temporal dimension that lends its debates a measure of human fallibility no such luck with the religious debates where the truth is immutable and the dissent an heresy. The […]
Dancing with the wolves on October 29, 2018Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! – Patrick Henry Thus spoke Patrick Henry, the man with the sword like tongue, one of the most revered founding fathers […]
Pakistan’s water strategy on October 22, 2018In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner” a tale of accursed seamen is narrated, who have been jinxed due to an egregious sin of slaying the albatross, which led their ship out of an icy sea grave, on the back of the South Wind; indicated by the noble bird. The allegorical reference to the slain bird […]
Arms and the men on October 6, 2018It is our duty to live as long as we can. “George Bernard Shaw, Arms and the men Bernard Brodie writes in his seminal work,”The absolute weapon: atomic power and world order” that, “Thus far the chief purpose of our military establishment has been to win wars. From now on its chief purpose must be […]
The ungovernable country on September 24, 2018Why is it that Pakistan is ungovernable? There are several reasons for this malady because of which all governance efforts have withered on the vine so far. Part of the problem lies in our historical experience. As per Professor TV Paul if a regime is well endowed in the geostrategic arena due to its location […]