OBL – The Original Photo

Here it is

NATO Realigns

Group Profile Portugal Summit Redefining Threats NATO leaders on Friday adopted a new Strategic Concept that will serve as the alliance’s roadmap for the next 10 years and that reconfirms the commitment to defend one another against attack as the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security. The document lays out NATO’s vision for an evolving alliance that will remain [...]

US Mid Term Elections and South Asia

The mid term elections in US have ominous portents for Obama ranging from the domestic to foreign policy issues. This post attempts at unraveling some of the the thoughts being proposed and debated by think tanks across the globe. The domestic issues are for US to take a call om. The real danger is from “New” ideas of military expansionism in South Asia.

India’s Options in Afghanistan

The Indian options therefore remain centered around active public diplomacy to engage Kayani, Karzai and Obama – not necessarily in that order.

Why NOW Musharraf?

Musharraf turned the Pakistani world upside down with the revelation that Pakistan had trained terrorists to fight against India as all else had failed to evoke international response to Kashmir. Why did he do this soon after announcing his decision to return to active politics in Pakistan  ”to galvanise Pakistanis and fight a “jihad against [...]

Pakistan’s Viability – The Bellagio Papers, Part 2

Amongst wide ranging opinions in the papers swaying between optimism and pessimism the authors of the papers unanimously agree that Pakistan as a country has five to seven years to get a grip on managing its internal fault lines. It has to shed its image of “epicentre of terror” and manage to survive without using terror as a strategic hedge to meet it’s ill perceived National Interests. Should it fail to do so, despite best attempts of its friends, it may very well balkanise sooner than later.

Pakistan’s Viability – The Bellagio Papers

Pakistan today needs independence from its feudal political structure, economic justice, a secular social contract, a viable education system, communication infrastructure and everything else that a society needs except terror and export of terror. This is a struggle that Pakistan needs to own and define. The future of militancy, sectarian violence and radical extremism will depend much on the government structures being able to define the problems it is up against, and the willingness to change these underlying problems. USA, China and India will remain in their places to guard their own national interests in the long run

Wars Are a Human Effort…afterall

Unless there is a change in how it perceives the nature of warfare, the West will lose the War in Afghanistan, despite declaring victory, and spend the next 10 years in splendid isolation wondering what went wrong.

Af Pak – Come September

Af Pak Events The intensity of war in Af-Pak has picked up considerably in September beginning last week of August. The pattern indicates flexing of muscle by the Punjabi Taliban and TTP across Pakistan. The numbers in Pakistan include 108 civilians, mainly Shia minority, killed and 400 wounded. In Afghanistanthe coalition forces were able to kill 64 “terrorists” of [...]

As August 2010 Ambles Away

War in Iraq The writing was on the wall with Obama formally announcing an end to the war in Iraq. “We are turning a new page in history”, he said. The next page is obviously the drawdown in Afghanistan in July 2011. Apparently this page has been turned without as much thinking through as was [...]

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