Context What did Putin Invade Ukraine? Many interpretations have come to the fore on why Putin invaded Ukraine on February 22. One of the recurring ones is the ever-expanding NATO presence in Eastern Europe, which was now about to include Ukraine itself, right on the Russian border. Russia has often cited the unwritten understanding that…
Context The abrupt withdrawal of US and coalition forces from Afghanistan last August and the arrival of Afghan Taliban at the helm represented a key turning point in the region and beyond. The attention in the past had remained on the risks of what the return of Afghan Taliban would mean. Now that it is…
Context Despite a haphazard military pullout and the subsequent despondency evoked by the rapid collapse of the Afghan government, the United States has been compelled to resume talks with the Taliban. The US decision to begin talking to the Taliban again in Qatar starting this week may seem like an undue concession to a group…
Context No other single event is as consequential to the politics of the Middle East than the future of Iran’s nuclear deal. The nation’s nuclear program has been at the center of contention between Israel and Iran, and by that connection to the US. After quite a bit of deliberation, P5+1(US, Russia, China, France, UK,…
Context The historical parallels are important in developing perspectives on present-day conundrums. They provide an illustration of where matters were and how they were dealt with at the time. Not only that they also provide historical continuity and help grasp the future course. Consider the following excerpt from Allama Iqbal’s “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in…
Context The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held its 20th anniversary conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on September 17. The conference took place in the backdrop of the collapse of Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan as the Taliban took over. This was accompanied by the complete withdrawal of US and coalition troops that has raised alarm bells…
Context As a direct result of the industrial revolution and emerging capitalist system, a number of powerful businesses and entrepreneurs come to the scene in the 18th,19th, and the early part of the 20thcentury. These names included giants like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J P Morgan and Marcus Goldman. They…
Context Now that US is withdrawing from Afghanistan and that ambiguity is out of the equation the attention is naturally shifting how will the balance the power be achieved. There are obviously several competitors battling it out. In this the critical aspect is the influence of players that have been historically and culturally more engaged…
Context Now that the Biden administration has definitively announced plans to withdraw militarily from Afghanistan by September 11, the focus has shifted to the post withdrawal scenarios and what that would look like for the US and other key stakeholders. The most important determinant of that is the status of Afghan reconciliation and US-China ties….
Context The great power rivalries are back and this will be the focus of the American foreign policy, as declared by Trump previously, and President Biden recently. As opposed to continued concentrating on fighting the ‘unending wars’ and war against extremists the concentration will now be on global adversaries like China and Russia. According to…
