An In-Depth Analysis of the 30–31 August Escalation and Its Global, Regional, and Gulf Implications (By Khalid Masood) I. Executive Summary The overnight exchange of 30–31 August 2026 — a US precision strike on Iranian launchers at Larak Island followed by Iran’s first-ever ballistic missile attacks on American air bases in Jordan — represents the…
(By Khalid Masood) The air inside a neonatal intensive care unit is normally defined by a fragile rhythm: the hiss of ventilators, the measured beeping of monitors and the hurried but controlled movements of doctors and nurses fighting to keep premature and critically ill babies alive. On the morning of 26 August 2026, that rhythm…
Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan have created a new security framework. Its significance, however, will depend less on the language of collective defence than on whether the three states can reconcile very different strategic interests. (By Khalid Masood) When Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin…
(By Khalid Masood) Introduction: From Estrangement to Entente In the shifting architecture of twenty-first-century geopolitics, few bilateral relationships have undergone a more consequential transformation than that between India and Japan. For much of the post-war era, the two nations remained polite but distant—separated by geography, divergent strategic cultures, and India’s steadfast non-alignment. Today, however, New…
(By Khalid Masood) On 18 August 2026, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif stood beside Wilson L. White, Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, and unveiled the foundation plaque of the company’s first office in Pakistan. The ceremony at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad carried the weight of a nation eager to…
(By Khalid Masood) When the two-part docuseries Declassified: Operation Sindoor premiered on India’s 80th Independence Day, August 15, 2026, the Indian establishment hailed it as a triumph of transparency and military prowess. Broadcast on the Discovery Channel and streamed globally, the series meticulously details the 88-hour cross-border kinetic operation launched in May 2025. Yet, beneath…
(Quratulain Khalid) The Dichotomy of August 15 Today, as India marks its 79th Independence Day with elaborate military parades, flag-hoisting ceremonies, and sweeping declarations of its rise as a global power, a radically different narrative unfolds just a few hundred kilometers away in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. There, August 15 is not…
(By Quratulain Khalid) The Warm-Water Obsession For over a century, the Kremlin has harboured a singular, unyielding geopolitical ambition: to reach the warm waters of the Arabian Sea. It is a dream that has shaped empires, triggered wars, and redrawn the map of Eurasia. In December 1979, that dream drove the Soviet Union to send…
(By Khalid Masood) I. The Internet Shutdown Rebellion In late 2025, Hibatullah Akhundzada did what he had done a hundred times before. From his compound in Kandahar, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan issued an edict. This one was sweeping: a nationwide internet shutdown. The reasoning was characteristically theological. The digital realm,…
(By Khalid Masood) I. Background: From Aid Recipient to Defence Partner The United States-Israel Defence Technology Cooperation Initiative did not emerge from a vacuum. It is the culmination of a seven-decade military relationship that has evolved from arms sales and financial aid into something approaching structural fusion. Understanding this trajectory is essential to grasping why…
