Small and great
WITH the exception of a handful of countries, this world is ruled by small people. There is no great man in sight. In America, Richard Nixon was the last great…
Straws in the Syrian whirlwind
THE pendulum of zealotry almost always ushers in intellectual subterfuge in its wake. The lightning, if not spontaneous, takeover of Damascus by mediaeval militias is being predictably applauded by Western journalists as…
What do we know about Syrian rebels’ major offensive on Aleppo?
Rebel forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad have launched their biggest offensive in years this week, controlling a majority of Syria’s second city of Aleppo according to a monitor. Government forces…
Elections and complications
AFTER a nail-biting race, the Turkish election appears to be headed towards a run-off poll, with neither candidate able to secure 50 per cent of the vote. The electoral rules…
Long war threat
WHEN the negotiators for the TTP threatened, by some accounts, a long war on Pakistan, I wonder whether their Pakistani interlocutors reminded them that in a long war it is…
Masters of war
THE headlines from the Nato summit that concluded a week ago in the Lithuanian capital mainly reflected the prospect of Swedish membership and, more dramatically, the failure to invite Ukraine…
Lethal largesse
OVER the centuries, the value of gifts involving royalty have depended on their purpose. Between monarchs, gifts acknowledged equivalence; to commoners, they indicated superiority; and to monarchs they admitted subservience.…
The caged country
PAKISTAN is one of the few countries where political surrogacy is still legal, where a seed can be planted by the military to gestate in the womb of democracy. Earlier…
Leadership matters
RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has won a third presidential term. His dominance of the Turkish political scene for over two decades has been marked both by enviable successes and trying challenges.…
Two nations
AT this doleful time, we should mourn with our Turkish and Syrian brethren. They have suffered a horrendous series of earthquakes and aftershocks. We must, if only because, during the…
