Pakistan
Drones do the talking in Pakistan’s anti-terror offensive
In the last fortnight, Pakistan has launched a drone campaign in Afghanistan against the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – the Pakistani Taliban. The campaign is a result…
India-Russia: A friend in need
Two factors – military materiel and energy opportunities – have been used to explain India’s muted criticisms of Russia and its equivocal support for Ukraine. Both positions, to…
Back in the USSR – surprises in the Russia-Ukraine conflict
My grandfather Kopel Harkowitz was born in Lismore, which is experiencing the worst floods in more than a century. In 1880, when the last big wet hit the Northern Rivers, his…
Pakistan and China: An unhappy union in Gwadar
A couple of months back, 70-year-old housewife Masi Zainab asked a charismatic local political leader, Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman Baloch, to help mount a protest for the rights of…
Sport between India and Pakistan is not just that
Cricketing salutations can be baffling. Why did India’s men’s team captain Virat Kohli hug Pakistani player Mohammad Rizwan, and team mentor M.S. Dhoni greet Pakistani players,…
China – a lonely superpower
As the United States, United Kingdom and Australia move to form a new AUKUS grouping, various reports have emerged of a “new Quad” led by China and featuring Iran, Pakistan and…
Afghanistan’s collapse shifts strategic dynamics in South Asia
What was predicted to take 90 days instead occurred within weeks – a complete takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban after a hasty withdrawal of US troops, with Kabul succumbing…
Mango diplomacy is more than low-hanging fruit in South Asian politics
Recently Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent a local variant of sweet mangoes known as Haribhanga to her counterparts in India and Pakistan. Why mangoes? The mango…
Is Pakistan fuelling a Taliban takeover?
As districts fall to the Taliban one after another without resistance, the government in Afghanistan has squarely put the blame on Pakistan for the mayhem in the country.
This is…
Another proxy war in Afghanistan?
With the US in the process of withdrawing the last of its troops from Afghanistan, it has taken little time for fierce fighting to flare up in several parts of the country, as the…