National Security Policy: Good start, More needed (Part 1) on January 21, 2022In Pakistan, intellectual endeavours – especially those emanating from the government – are few and far between. Therefore, any governmental work done in that domain should be cherished. Consequently, the recently released national security policy – its publicly available version anyway – should be appreciated. I have previously written about rebooting the national security framework […]
IMF: Friend or Foe? on January 18, 2022Impossible Mission Force – to the uninitiated, IMF can stand for that! Nevertheless, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a crucial cog in the global financial system. Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. Although the IMF and World Bank came about as part of the Bretton Woods accord after World War […]
Pakistan’s instruments of foreign policy on December 20, 2021By now it is a cliché to say that these are trying and difficult circumstances. They have been for quite some time and nothing on the horizon suggests that they will change anytime soon. For a developing country such as Pakistan – things are doubly tough! Particularly when it comes to foreign policy challenges. Thus, […]
Sialkot Incident, Satire Anyone? on December 10, 2021Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana is a name that will be remembered in Pakistan for a long time. Or will it? Our short-term memory is just that, short! Lest we forget, only recently the Sri Lankan was dispatched to hell (Urdu vernacular: jahanam raseed kar diya) by a mob of steadfast faith (pukhta emaan). Social media is […]
Policy Lessons from Angela Merkel, The Iron Chancellor on November 26, 2021When it comes to recent political heavyweights, none come closer to matching Angela Merkel’s record! The 67-year-old has been in power since 2005 and is the third longest-serving chancellor in German history, bested only by “Chancellor of Unity” Helmut Kohl in the 20th century and Otto Von Bismarck in the 19th century. To top it […]
COP26: Pledges don’t Equal Policy on November 19, 20211st November 2021: Demonstrators gather by the River Clyde holding placards with the phrase “No More Blah Blah” and indigenous leaders march the centre of Glasgow in traditional garb. 6th November 2021: Activists on the King George V bridge block the main route connecting Glasgow city centre to the south side of the city. Using […]
Avoiding a state of surrender on November 1, 2021Baton wielding protesters, emotionally charged crowds, struggling law enforcement agencies, scared and inconvenienced normal-day individuals, impending signs of causalities, welcome to another saga of the surrender of the state to the group it had recently declared a terrorist outfit! Lest we forget, this is not the first time. Numerous governments in the past have faced […]
The Afghanistan Debacle: Marco Rubio vs Reality on October 8, 2021To say that America’s Afghanistan debacle has put the cat amongst the pigeons would be a grave understatement! For now, the area has become a hotbed of more uncertainty and instability. An abrupt and poorly planned end to more than 20 years of occupation will do that to a region. On cue, recriminations have started […]
AUKUS: Foretelling of a New Global Order? on September 21, 2021AUKUS seems like a name of a secret organisation from a Robert Ludlum or an Ian Fleming novel. Cold War parallels notwithstanding, it does seem to hark back to an era of intrigue and espionage. This is of course the new working group recently announced by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, UK Prime Minister Boris […]
Policy of Intervention: COVID-19, Central Banks and Asset Bubbles on July 31, 2021Using the US and UK as reference points, consider the numbers after the financial crisis 2007 – 2008. US: a loss of $8 trillion, borne by the stock market and a 10 per cent peak of unemployment in 2009. $9.8 trillion were lost by Americans because of plummeting house values and a decrease in the […]