Rizwan Asghar

What is a threat? When does a threat become really threatening? And why do some threats take precedence over others in terms of being harmful to a state’s security? These questions have dominated the theoretical debates in the field of International Relations (IR) for more than half a century. While no definite answers have yet […]

Problematising the concept of security has recently become a cottage industry for international relations (IR) scholars and experts in public policy. While there is no dearth of literature on security relationships between states, the concept itself has been relatively invisible in the theoretical debates. Most intellectual efforts, however, are concerned with redefining and broadening the […]

One of the major debates in the study of international relations (IR) during the Cold War period was between Liberalism, Realism and Marxism as different theoretical approaches to world politics. However, the relevance of Marxism as a theory has been put under question after the fall of the Soviet Union by a number of neo-liberal […]

“One nuclear war is going to be the last nuclear war — the last war, frankly, if it really gets out of hand. And I just don’t think we ought to be prepared to accept that sort of thing” —Lawrence Eagleburger   Let there be no doubt that more than 1.5 billion peoples of South […]

In 1944, famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr sent a letter to US President Franklin D Roosevelt, warning him about the urgent need to control fissile materials by reaching an understanding at the international level. A year later, in July 1945, the US carried out the first-ever nuclear test, ushering the world into the nuclear age. […]

Last week, 10 militants attacked the Jinnah International Airport and more than 20 people were killed in the long-drawn gunfight between the attackers and law enforcement agencies. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for this large-scale attack and termed it an act of revenge for the killing of their leader Hakeemullah Mehsud. According to preliminary […]

Nuclear weapons have always occupied a central strategic place in Soviet and Russian national security doctrines. Starting in the early 1950s, the Soviet leadership put a heavy premium on the role of strategic weapons systems as a means of achieving strategic parity with its main rival, the United States. After the initial efforts for global […]

The proliferation of missile technology has been cause for growing concern since 1944 when Nazi German forces fired V-1 and V-2 rockets against Allied targets in France, Great Britain and Belgium. Best suited for delivering not only nuclear but also biological and chemical weapons, ballistic and cruise missiles can pose significant security threats both regionally […]

When the Cold War was finally drawing to an end, many world leaders offered the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. During the early 1980s, former US Secretary of State George Shultz confronted the critics of nuclear disarmament, asking, “What is so good about a world where you can be wiped out in […]

Long before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, strategic thinkers and leading think tanks in the US had started anticipating new transnational security threats to international peace and security. The conventional mechanism of nuclear deterrence was no longer valid because of the multiplicity of dangers ranging from civil wars and ‘rogue’ governments to the secret proliferation of […]