The state of the state
Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Collect your thoughts. And try to ponder over this question: what was it that disturbed you the most this week? Was there something…
Energy sector taxes
Dedicated funds are a means to collect money for a specific purpose employed by governments and on occasion by the private sector. The government, however, is required to enact legislation…
Strategy in our pockets
The disaster began in the 1970s. The Z A Bhutto government – in search of strategic depth – provided shelter to Afghan dissidents. The government also embarked on a massive…
African asylum seekers in Sicily dream of soccer glory
Like many young men in Italy, the soccer players who put on their cleats for an afternoon match in this small Sicilian town dream of international stardom on the field.…
India: Mideast and beyond
With general elections around the corner, neither of the prime ministerial candidates has articulated their stand on crucial foreign policy issues, except for the occasional mention of Pakistan, China and…
Despite Iraq’s troubles, archaeologists are back
Ur's palaces and temples lie in ruins, but its hulking Ziggurat still dominates the desert flatlands of what is now southern Iraq, as it has for millennia. Climbing the Ziggurat's…
National interest: Trade talks, free trade and trade diplomacy
Trade and industry in Pakistan is all but consumed by the ongoing trade negotiations with India. Information flow on such an important development for the country is largely restricted to…
Liquefied natural gas foes go to the mat in Maryland
Maps of Indian and Japanese ports paper the walls of a Dominion Resources Inc conference room in a small Maryland town, population 1,835, known more for crabbing and bird watching…
The Pakistan sandwich
What is the worst sandwich in international relations? Many countries’ leaders would name their own country in the middle, pressed up against the proverbial rocks on one side and difficult,…
Meddling arrogance
Washington cannot understand that interfering in other nations’ domestic affairs is not only dangerous but entirely counter-productive. It should come as no surprise that there has been gross US interference…
