(By Faraz Ahmed) When President Donald Trump first visited China in November 2017, the diplomatic theatre was defined by commercial optimism and headline-grabbing memoranda of understanding. Nearly nine years later, his return to Beijing in May 2026 presents a markedly different tableau. The pageantry of state visits remains, but the substance has shifted from expansion…
Amid trade truces, AI diplomacy, and the Iran conflict, the president’s second-term visit tests whether cooperation can outpace competition. (By Khalid Masood) As Air Force One touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport on 12 May, the stage was set for the most consequential U.S.-China diplomatic engagement in nearly a decade. President Donald Trump’s state…
(By Khalid Masood) Introduction: The Announcement That Changed the Conversation In May 2026, Air Vice-Marshal Tariq Ghazi, Pakistan’s Deputy Chief of Air Staff, confirmed what defence analysts had speculated for months. Standing before the press in Islamabad, he stated that Islamabad had laid the “foundations… for the acquisition of advanced capabilities”—including long-range precision weapons, next-generation…
I. Introduction: A Warning Shot Across 47 Years “The U.S. will play no games. We will get their uranium.” When President Donald Trump issued this statement on May 11, 2026, he was not merely updating reporters on diplomatic progress. He was issuing an ultimatum that carries the weight of nearly half a century of enmity….
(By Khalid Masood) Introduction: The Unraveling of a Century-Old Consensus For nearly eighty years, the architecture of modern warfare rested on a deceptively simple hierarchy: armour provides the breakthrough, air power provides the decision. From the blitzkrieg across the Ardennes to the “shock and awe” of Baghdad, military doctrine assumed that victory flowed from the…
(Faraz Ahmed) In the shadow of olive trees that have witnessed generations of struggle, a people endure. As Israeli airstrikes once again pound Lebanese soil and Gaza’s rubble-strewn landscape, the Palestinian question remains not merely a regional dispute, but a profound test of our collective commitment to human rights, international law, and the very principle…
(By Ayesha Mahnoor) Introduction: A Political Earthquake in the South In one of the most dramatic electoral upsets in modern Indian political history, Tamil Nadu has witnessed the end of a decades-long duopoly. Actor-turned-politician C. Joseph Vijay, known to millions as Thalapathy, has led his newly formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) to win 108 seats…
(By Khalid Masood) Introduction: A Fracture in the House of Islam On 28 April 2026, the United Arab Emirates announced its withdrawal from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after nearly six decades of membership—a decision that sent shockwaves through global energy markets and laid bare the deepening fissures within the Gulf’s political architecture….
(By Khalid Masood) I. Lead / Executive Summary The international order is no longer defined by a rigid bipolar divide, but by a complex mosaic of regional powers exercising calibrated strategic autonomy. As President Donald Trump prepares for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on 14–15 May 2026, the global landscape has…
(By Khalid Masood) I. Introduction: The Distance of Twelve Months A year has elapsed since the Indian government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, authorised Operation Sindoor—a military strike against Pakistan that was intended to project strength but instead delivered the most consequential strategic reversal in modern Indian history. The passage of twelve months affords the…
