US budget crisis places global economic pickup at risk
The budget stand-off in the United States could not have come at a worse time for the fragile global economy, with the deepening political crisis in Washington threatening to dash…
What word for stupidity?
Anger is a spent force in Pakistan, an exhausted emotion. We are past its boundaries because many of us feel that nothing really matters, nothing will change. This is our…
Putin’s pragmatism
After the Russian-brokered Syrian commitment to hand over its chemical weapons, and the US being prevented from invading Syria, an editorial in the September 21 edition of The Economist regretted…
Greenpeace protest highlights quest for Arctic riches
The waves of the Arctic Sea are being whipped up as the quest for the North Pole's treasures heats up. A Greenpeace video shows dramatic images of armed masked men…
The price of hyper-intervention
The Syrian crisis dominated debate at an international conference last week in Stockholm that reviewed a range of global strategic issues. Organised by the London-based Institute of Strategic Studies, the…
Deadly tentacles of terrorism
The ghastly and cowardly attack of September 15, 2013 by Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) on Major General Sanaullah Khan, Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef Ahmad and Sepoy Irfan Sattar, has once again exposed hollowness…
Merkel learned doggedness in countryside near Berlin
When the German chancellor has a free weekend, she packs her bags and heads northwards from Berlin with her husband to her home territory, the sandy plain of the Uckermark.…
vJackpot boomtowns
Meleourne's reputation as the world’s most liveable city is well deserved. I spent most of last year there. As well as a chic city centre and immaculate suburbs, there’s non-stop…
The peace delusion
While approaching our problem of terror and courting peace in earnest there is no room for false bravado. Why object to state functionaries sitting down with disaffected citizens if that…
Merkel works the crowds as election enters crucial phase
Angela Merkel has never been known as a great public speaker, but after eight years leading Europe's biggest economy she certainly knows how to work a crowd. Thousands have been…
