Sand Dunes are Shifting in the Middle East on May 28, 2023As far as détentes go, this one must be up there with the all-time greats. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads as far as memory can go. The leading Sunni and Shia powers in the region have even been at odds in the recent past as well. Consider. 2011 – During the Arab […]
Running with the Hare, Hunting with the Hounds on March 10, 2023Since independence, Pakistan in general and Pakistani politics, in particular, have been lurching from one crisis to another. While it is true that infant nations do tend to endure birth pangs of varying degrees, it is equally true that the universe has specially bestowed upon the Pakistani people a proportion of misery reserved only for […]
Into the Abyss on February 7, 2023Ever-increasing terrorism activities, check. A hapless security apparatus, check. Economic meltdown, check. The luckless population at the mercy of the wolves, check. Major stakeholders blaming each other, check. Into the abyss, check! “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. Nietzsche’s […]
Show me the money on January 13, 2023The 2022 floods in Pakistan have been the most devastating in living memory. This is reflected in these grim numbers from the World Bank. GDP fell by around 2.2%, 8 million people were displaced, 9 million were pushed below the poverty line, 33 million were affected, and 1730 died, resulting in a $14.9 billion direct […]
Staring down the Barrel on December 15, 2022Clint Eastwood has been the most successful actor of his generation, with a lot of accolades to his name. None more so than in the movie Dirty Harry, a phrase that is all the vogue in the vernacular media nowadays for different reasons! In the film, with an empty 44 magnum in his hand, he […]
UK Economic Landscape on November 8, 2022Consider these eye-watering statistics: inflation galloping at double digits, the steepest rise in interest rates for 33 years, a two-year recession to look forward to, unemployment nearly doubling by 2025, and the longest downturn since records began! This is not the outlook for a developing, third-world nation. It is the economic forecast for one of […]
The ongoing political power of oil on October 7, 2022Since the discovery of oil in the second half of the 19th century in the US, the political power of oil has been on ample display. It has been the most critical dimension in shaping international, domestic and social life. Subsequent detection of oil reserves in Russia, Latin America and the Middle East meant that […]
Missing Moral Compass and Negligible Learning Effectiveness on September 7, 2022Natural disasters are notorious for two things – one, unleashing an era of human suffering and two, putting the moral compass and learning effectiveness of the ruling elite and the state under the microscope! In the recent floods hitting vast swathes of Pakistan, the former was unfortunately on ample display, and the latter was repeatedly […]
Policy Lessons from the Ukrainian Front on July 16, 2022Rarely has a recent conflict been more replete with lessons for the policy making elite than the Ukraine-Russia war. This marks the end of the optimistic bonhomie of the 90s and definitively starts another era of a new Cold War between the US and its allies on one side and Russia and China aligned nations […]
Lateral Thinking in Policy Formulation on June 9, 2022The Greeks have given us many things – democracy, philosophy, architecture, mythology, the Olympics – the list goes on. Another highly valuable Greek contribution to this world is logic. It was Aristotle, Plato and Socrates who were its biggest proponents and underpinned it with knowledge, analysis and judgement. Subsequently, societies were steeped in logical thinking […]