A Strategic Analysis of India’s Domestic Politics, Regional Security, and the Future of South Asia (By Khalid Masood) Introduction Relations between India and Pakistan have once again entered a period of heightened tension. Speaking on the occasion of the 26th Kargil Vijay Diwas, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh adopted a hardline stance, declaring that any…
(By Khalid Masood) Introduction: When Geography Defeats Military Superiority Throughout history, geography has often neutralized military superiority. From the mountains of Afghanistan to the jungles of Vietnam, powerful armies have repeatedly discovered that overwhelming firepower alone cannot guarantee strategic success. The Persian Gulf—and particularly the Strait of Hormuz—represents another such battlefield where geography, economics, and…
(By Faraz Ahmed) The year 2026 marks a watershed in Pakistan’s diplomatic history. As Islamabad celebrates the 75th anniversary of its ties with Beijing—cementing the “Iron Brotherhood’s” “all-weather” credentials—a deeper geopolitical shift is crystallizing. For decades, Pakistan’s strategic identity was defined largely through the prism of its bilateral relationship with China, a partnership forged in…
How a single attack on a Cyprus-flagged vessel on 12 July 2026 reignited the most dangerous confrontation in the Middle East — and why the world may not escape a wider war this time. (By Khalid Masood) I. The Incident The first reports came in the early hours of Saturday, 12 July 2026. In the…
(By Khalid Masood) I. The Speech That Revealed the Crack On the evening of June 21, 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage at the Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS) Policy Summit and delivered a statement that sounded like a declaration of independence. “In the United States, they say that President Trump does everything…
(By Quratulain Khalid) The Middle East is currently navigating its most perilous inflection point since the eruption of the 2026 Iran war. What began on February 28 with a massive wave of surprise US-Israeli airstrikes targeting Iranian military sites has now spiraled into a terrifying new phase of direct state-on-state confrontation. The fragile ceasefire between…
(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 Ayesha Mahnoor) Introduction: The Seduction of Linear Thinking “History rarely moves in straight lines, and global supremacy has never been awarded on a spreadsheet.” The narrative is familiar, almost ritualistic: China’s economy will surpass America’s, its technological edge will widen, and the 21st century will belong to Beijing. This projection is presented not as…
(By Faraz Ahmed) When emergency foreign ministers convened in Brussels last month, the mood was less one of coordinated resolve than of calibrated caution. Behind closed doors, European diplomats wrestled with a familiar but increasingly urgent question: how to uphold foundational commitments to international law and multilateral diplomacy while navigating the hard realities of alliance…
(By Faraz Ahmed) In the narrow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, a paradox is unfolding. U.S. naval assets continue mine-clearance preparations and freedom-of-navigation operations while diplomatic envoys exchange messages in neutral capitals, searching for common ground. Public rhetoric on both sides remains uncompromising: American officials describe a posture that is “locked and loaded,” while…
