A black cloud looms over Nangarhar on January 25, 2016More Afghan peace talks without a ceasefire is like putting the cart before the horse. How can the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US, expect a different outcome from previous tries without the Taliban halting attacks? Could it be that this multilateral confab exists for a multinational threat, meaning Islamic […]
Welding back the Iron Curtain on January 18, 2016This has to be a cosmic joke. The same year Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf comes back into print in Germany after a 70-year ban, Donald Trump is crowd surfing his way to the Republican presidential nomination by peddling Nazi-lite propaganda. Pakistan got its first, true taste of ‘Trumpism’ when California police accosted noted film director […]
The Indo-Pak litmus test on January 10, 2016If I had a rupee for every time the Indian media put a hyphen between Pakistan and terrorism without adequate proof, I would be a very rich man indeed. Following the Pathankot airbase attack on January 2, 2015 by militants allegedly linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), misplaced anger again squalls tunelessly from across the border. Pakistan’s […]
A season of coalitions on December 27, 2015Would it be cynical to suggest that Saudi Arabia’s newly minted 34-member alliance to fight “terrorist organisations” exists solely for roping in Pakistan’s military assets? Maybe, but such is the dearth of tactical details and a clear battle plan that you cannot help but scratch your head and wonder: what is the point? That said, […]
Can TAPI change South Asia? on December 20, 2015Nothing brings foes together like the lust for fossil fuels but the shelf life of such makeshift alliances is hard to predict. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline planned from Turkmenistan to India, by way of Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be a litmus test for the pull of positive economics over set geopolitical agendas. TAPI, for […]
NATOs salaryman war on December 13, 2015The innocuous English word “salaryman” has negative cultural connotations in Japan. A salaryman is a white-collar worker in theory but he is also someone cruising on autopilot, hoping to work for the same company all his life and eventually retire with a livable pension. If he goes through the motions long enough, the salaryman believes […]
Miss Gaddafi yet? on November 29, 2015The former Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, served an important function in North Africa: keeping a lid on Islamic extremism. As a pan-Arabist and Nasserite, Gaddafi was wary of and quickly muzzled any Islamist groups that mixed religion with politics. He also kept neighbouring economies afloat by direct investments and employing their citizens in Libya’s oil […]
Miss Gaddafi? on November 29, 2015The former Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, served an important function in North Africa: keeping a lid on Islamic extremism. As a pan-Arabist and Nasserite, Gaddafi was wary of and quickly muzzled any Islamist groups that mixed religion with politics. He also kept neighbouring economies afloat by direct investments and employing their citizens in Libya’s oil […]
The two nakbas of November on November 22, 2015Al-Nakba is an Arabic word meaning the catastrophe. Sixty-eight years ago, on November 29, 1947, the UN Security Council (UNSC) rolled out Resolution 181 on Palestine. In the process, it put wheels on a runaway train that continues to mow down Arabs and Jews alike well into the 21st century and midwifed the cancer of […]
IS ups the ante in Egypt on November 15, 2015“The worst is yet to come,” worried Egyptian analyst Ismail Alexandrani in July after local militants claiming Islamic State (IS) patronage struck an Egyptian warship and set it ablaze. His fears have come true in an unexpected way. The Wilayet Sinai or Sinai Province (SP) offshoot of IS took credit for downing a Russian-owned Metrojet […]