Riaz Missen

The Rafale deal, sealed just days after the Pahalgam massacre, did more than bolster India’s defence capabilities-it sent a resounding signal of Western support at a moment when restraint was urgently needed. On April 28, 2025, barely six days after the tragic killing of 26 tourists in the Baisaran Valley of Pahalgam, India finalized a […]

As South Asia teeters on the edge of climate catastrophe, Pakistan finds itself boxed into a treaty that is fast becoming a death warrant. The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), once praised for defusing tensions between India and Pakistan, now underpins a slow-motion ecocide that is tearing through Pakistan’s water systems, crippling its agriculture, and fuelling […]

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), now held in abeyance by India, was hammered out in 1960 and hailed as a triumph of diplomacy. Against the backdrop of Cold War rivalries, global powers leaned in to push through an agreement that would ostensibly keep two nuclear-armed neighbours from clashing. Yet as political leaders congratulated themselves, they […]

The Cholistan Canal is currently framed as an agricultural off-take-designed to release 4,100 cusecs of monsoon floodwater for six months into Punjab’s southeastern desert, traditionally treated as marginal land. The canal has already triggered controversy, especially from Sindh, the lower riparian province, which fears further depletion of Indus flows. But a more compelling question remains […]

The celebration of historic low inflation in Pakistan-often touted as a sign of fiscal success-masks a much deeper and more alarming issue: the erosion of democratic freedoms. The Shahbaz regime, heralding a 1% inflation rate as an achievement, has successfully managed to pull off what seems to be an economic victory, but the cost has […]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in her recent remarks in New Delhi, doubled down on Western support for India, framing it as a rising power, a counterweight to China, and a model of economic progress. Emphasizing “shared values of democracy and freedom” as the foundation of the EU-India strategic partnership, she pledged to […]

Hindutva, the Aryan supremacist ideology, has historically destabilized South Asia, making it prone to foreign invasions. Rooted in a desire for absolute control over the subcontinent, it has disrupted the delicate regional consensus that sustained empires, leading to cycles of internal strife and external conquests. Hindutva’s radical impulse has persistently fractured South Asia’s geopolitical fabric. […]

For years, India has strutted onto the global stage, propped up by foreign backers who handed it the script of China’s counterweight without ensuring it had the means to play the part. In its eagerness to flex its muscles, India has plundered its own backyard-ravaging the fragile Himalayan ecosystem and manipulating rivers at its neighbours’ […]

For decades, India was built up as a rising power, a counterweight to China, and a pillar of regional stability. This narrative, largely pushed forward by the West, allowed India to ride high on a wave of external backing. However, as those favors dry up, India finds itself increasingly overextended. Its internal contradictions are coming […]

Driven by neoliberalism, Pakistan has given up control over key public services like healthcare, education, and utilities, handing them over to private corporations in the hope that market competition will lift society as a whole. However, this expectation has fallen apart, as privatization and deregulation have shut out the poor while allowing a handful of […]