COMMENT 212 – India can play a pivotal role in Afghanistan’s stability after U.S....
As the United States prepares to pull out the entirety of its remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan (Liptak, 2021) – a move fast being followed by NATO allies in the war-tattered nation (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation , 2021a, 2021b) – the onus for security and stability will fall on...
COMMENT 211 – The threat of the Taliban’s rising to power in Afghanistan –...
After months of speculation, the dice is cast: the US will withdraw its remaining combat troops from Afghanistan. Contrary to the vision by some optimistic sections of both the Afghans and the international community, the country is far away from becoming ‘a better place’ to live in. There are...
COMMENT 210 – Out of sight, out of mind? Biden’s calamitous decision on Afghanistan
Despite severe concerns by members of his own military top brass and security circles, on 14 April, 2021, US President Joe Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal of all combat troops by 11 September of the same year. The US does not only thereby relinquish the opportunity to conduct counter-insurgency...
COMMENT 209 – India-Pakistan relations and the upcoming Ankara conference on Afghanistan
India-Pakistan relations recently experienced a new low – expressed in a sharpened public rhetoric, the frequent occurrence of cease-fire violations at the ‘Line of Control’ (LoC), contestation over influence in Afghanistan, and other dynamics. The decades-old bilateral tensions gathered particular steam in August 2019 as New Delhi abrogated Article...
COMMENT 208 – Is Pakistan’s PM Khan losing his political grip?
Islamabad’s political circles experienced a tumultuous week, even for Pakistani standards. On Saturday, March 6, 2021, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan asked lawmakers from the lower house of the country’s parliament for a vote of confidence. The PM secured 178 votes out of the 171 currently required to win...
COMMENT 207 – Pakistan’s vision to reset its ties with the U.S. and the...
Pakistan is in the process of realigning its foreign policy parameters. Since last year, it became clear that Islamabad is trying to achieve more independence from Saudi Arabia in order to enlarge the room for collaboration with Iran. Currently, in a second major move to change the paradigm in...
COMMENT 206 – Pakistan’s new civilian-military cordiality in perspective
Since Imran Khan took office as Pakistan’s Prime Minister (PM) in August 2018, there has been an obvious improvement in the ties between the civilian government and the country’s armed forces. It is argued here that this new civil-military cordiality led to a constructive, less tensed working relationship between...
Comment 205 – Demystifying the Republic Day violence: Assessing political greed within India’s farmer...
Disha Ravi, a young environmental activist, was arrested on the 13th of February 2021 on conspired charges of sedition and for threatening India’s territorial integrity. Disha’s arrest is a recent development in the context of violence that followed in Delhi on the 26th of January 2021.
This violence is a result of...
Comment 204 – Decades of Patience and An Invisible Change in Kashmir
On 17th February 2021, a group of 24 foreign diplomats arrived in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for a two-day visit. The group was headed by European Union (EU) Ambassador Ugo Astuto and was comprised of envoys from various EU member states – including French envoy Emmanuel Lenain, Italian envoy...
Comment 203 – EU-India: Building bridges through High-Level Dialogue
India is one of the world’s largest growing economies – and an active player in global economic governance. The primary objective of the partnerships between the EU and India is transparency ( a non-discriminatory and predictable, regulatory business environment). On 5 February 2021,the EU and India held their first...