AUKUS, 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…
Many philosophers and historians have written time and again that just like the seasons, planets, ecosystem and the orbit of galaxies, time itself is circular in nature. History repeats itself in different forms, time and again. In the views of the great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, if a person has lived till the age of…
Introduction Mixing truth with falsehood and hiding the truth had become common practice among the People of the Book, this practice was for the purpose of misleading others. They were warned about this religious evil. “Why do you mix truth with falsehood and knowingly hide the truth?” [Quran 3:71] There is a lesson that the Muslim…
The significance of sports diplomacy cannot be marginalized in world politics because the arrangement of various games at bilateral and multilateral level strengthens people-to-people contacts between States. Governments have always tried to improve their standing in the world through promoting their soft image with the help of sports (and other means) of diplomacy. The greater…
The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit occurred in the shadow of sudden and dramatic events in Afghanistan that resulted in the emergence of Afghan Taliban rule after 20 years. It can’t be said for certain whether any of the SCO member countries and western stake holders were prepared for such a scenario. This un-expected…
On August 15th the Taliban swept across the whole of Afghanistan and Kabul fell without even a bullet fired. The Europeans and the Americans in particular were in disbelief. This is the project that the American military, NATO and European armies had been building for the last 20 long years. It is the longest war…
1. Introduction 1.1 Humanity has been facing environmental tragedies since the dawn of civilization. Such tragedies were decreed by the Creator because of human misdeeds or else they were caused by anthropogenic activity. Nature punishes humans whenever they interfere with natural phenomena. Since the Industrial Revolution human outlook has been fast sliding down from morality…
Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on September 18 that he has initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan. The announcement was made a day after his meeting with the leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbours, including China, Russia, Iran and Tajikistan on the side-lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization…
“In war, the moral is to the physical as ten is to one”. This quote from Napoleon Bonaparte could be an apt description of what happened to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in front of the ever-advancing Taliban! While the speed of ANDSF’s capitulation was a shock, the end results perhaps not…
Briefings by the military high command to parliamentarians have become a regular feature in Pakistan. So the recently concluded national security meeting on 1st of July 2021 shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. If media reports are to be believed, the topics under discussion were Kashmir, Afghanistan and internal security. Going by recent chain…
