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…
CONTEXT Like most other countries around the world Pakistan was in a wait and see mode on how its relationship with the United States would be impacted with the arrival of the Biden administration. Pakistan’s omission from the initial list of invitees for the first international summit on climate change, being hosted by President Biden…
Context Politact has consistently maintained that the longer the Afghan imbroglio continues it is bound to intersect with the other regional and global flash-points and the larger balance of power tussles. Not that it had not been in the past, but to a lesser degree. Since 9/11, and the subsequent war against extremism, the global…
Biden And The Future of Us-Pakistan relations Context As the Biden administration formulates its Pakistan policy and reviews the Afghan peace deal reached in February last year a debate is raging in both US and Pakistan based think tanks on the future of US-Pakistan relations. It is like a new season of an exciting Netflix…
PoliTact periodically invites leading regional and global experts to understand the changing geopolitical situations and significant emerging themes. One such theme is the budding China-Iran economic and security partnership. China and Iran are entering a $400 billion 25 year economic and security deal that would lead to enhanced military and trade relations. The agreement ensures…
Context India has formally invited Australia to join the large-scale naval exercises to be conducted in the Bay of Bengal (3-6 November) and the Arabian Sea (17-20 November), involving in addition to the navies of India and Australia, naval assets of the US and Japan. This is a very significant development if not militarily, certainly…
Context With the normalization of ties between UAE, Bahrain and Israel, the so-called ‘Outside-In Approach’ to the Middle East Peace Process is now in full swing. Most GCC and Arab nations are on the way to normalizing their ties with Israel. This was predicted as the regional situation dramatically shifted during the war against extremism,…
Context After numerous promising starts and hard stops, the Afghan peace process is once again making progress. The initiation of intra-Afghan peace process is now almost certain despite the hick-ups related to the release of last tranche of Taliban prisoners held by the Ashraf Ghani’s government. While many challenges have been overcome, several intricate obstacles…
Context Never before have there been so many conflicts been brewing at the same time, in particular in the regions of Middle East – and the adjoining areas of South Asia and North Africa. There is a tendency to view these conflicts as separate with their individual dynamics. However, they intertwined and there is a…
