Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must be extremely relieved that Pakistan’s parliament voted unanimously on Friday 10 April not to send troops in support of Saudi Arabia’s military operation in Yemen. While Saudi Arabia will not be pleased with that outcome, the parliamentarians’ decision was a wise one. This was a difficult decision for the Pakistan…
ContextIn its past analysis, PoliTact has projected that the affairs of Middle East, especially related to extremism and Iran’s nuclear program, are likely to dominate the affairs of South Asia at some point. Associated with this assessment is an alarm that if the Afghan reconciliation process lingers on for too long, as it has, the…
It’s the time of the year when institutions involved in deciphering the political, security and economic affairs of the world, produce short and long-term forecasts. Obviously, the primary purpose of developing a forecast is to better plan. And at a more sophisticated level, to help shape a future that is conducive for ones interests. It’s…
ContextIn its 2013 forecast, PoliTact had laid out a picture of the campaign against extremists that differed dramatically from the mainstream media. Many of these assessments were on the mark. As we approach the end of 2014 and enter the stage 2 of this campaign, these projections need to be revisited. As we conduct this…
The four-month old military operation in North Waziristan – Operation Zarb-e-Azb – and the smaller, more recent one in the Khyber Agency – Operation Khyber-I – against the various militant groups holed up in those areas have been successful, but only in a limited way. While the military capability of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the…
As we enter the new phase of the war against non-state actors, there is a growing anxiety that many of the Arab regimes may not be able retain the territorial shape they acquired at the end of WWII. Especially when the first stage of this campaign, which was primarily premised on the use of kinetic…
