Obama’s Asia ‘pivot’
What did President Barack Obama’s four-country tour of Asia signify? Was it a ‘reassurance’ visit to calm the anxieties of allies about America’s commitment to the region? An effort to…
Deterrence without illusions
As polling continues in India’s five-week long parliamentary elections, BJP leaders are showing growing confidence that their party will form the next government. Some opinion polls now suggest that the…
Censorship: between conservatives and liberals
Even after the remand and continuing trial of Gen Musharraf, few believed that the days of military encroachment over civilian governance were behind us. We aren’t just peoples with short…
How the US made its Putin problem worse
In September 2001, as the US reeled from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Vladimir Putin supported Washington's imminent invasion of Afghanistan in ways that…
Democracy on trial
What’s the best way to protect and strengthen Pakistan’s fragile democratic system? This perhaps remains the mother of all questions for many of the movers and shakers of Pakistani politics…
Delayed reckoning
Since Musharraf’s ouster from power six years ago, the Pakistan Army has come a long way in accepting the supremacy of the constitution and submitting to the authority of the…
1914 – the failure of diplomacy
On 28 June 1914, telegraphs were disseminating the news of the violent death of the Austrian heir to the throne in Sarajevo. Five weeks later. the First World War broke…
Our private sector
Budget cuts and sequestration have accelerated the growing interest in promoting international development through the private sector. As donor agencies reduce project spending and work within shorter time frames, they…
Democracy still in its infancy
The Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif's statement on Monday, a little over five months after he was appointed, that "Pakistan army upholds the sanctity of all institutions and…
Brinkmanship won’t pay
It is not an everyday occurrence that Pakistan’s army chief warns distracters against undermining the military’s institutional morale. It is also unusual that a couple of federal ministers have to…
