Tag Archives: terrorism

Pakistan: Staying the Course

Pakistan’s Army finds itself in familiar territory of a twilight zone, being asked by the politicians to make sacrifices while the politicians themselves simultaneously badmouth them, the Army’s patience is visibly wearing thin. Terrorism is an existential threat, our politicians excel in doublespeak, they cannot go scot-free while the national fabric is being destroyed.

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New Rules for China’s War on Terror?

China still lacks national anti-terror legislation, but do laws really matter in an authoritarian state and in a region as militarized as Xinjiang?

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Move Over, NATO and IMF: Eurasia is Coming

A thousand poles are blooming as new international blocs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS Development Bank emerge to challenge Western economic and military dominance.

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Wars Without Winners

Contrary to the view that extremism thrives when America is absent, empirical facts indicate that the opposite is truer. And each of the countries at the center of global concerns over extremism is in fact one that has seen direct or indirect western intervention, not western absence

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Pakistan Needs Homeland Security Command

Combining unity of command with amalgamated intelligence potential and commonality of personnel, weapons and equipment, etc under one single entity saves money by avoiding duplication. Instead of lip-service rhetoric and vacillation, there must be a credible and effective counter to the existential terrorism threat faced by Pakistan.

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A Crucial Phase in Pakistan’s War Against Terrorism

Appeasement is not an option, terrorism cannot be wished away – and certainly not by good faith and misplaced logic when your brutal antagonists pursue their living by your deaths. There is only one solution to Pakistan's terrorist problem, and that is to eliminate it.

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Pakistan Peace: A Window of Opportunity

The TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella group of Pakistani extremists) has been insisting till very recently that they represented all the groups committing terror in Pakistan. Only when the terrorist acts continued unabated after the negotiations started that the TTP (and their vocal sympathizers) changed tack and started distancing themselves from the sporadic violence.  Even then only proforma regret was …

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The Knowns and Unknowns of Flight MH370

It is one of the biggest hunts ever – involving dozens of ships, planes across vast oceans and thousands of people on the Internet searching real-time satellite pictures – but Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is still lost.   The Boeing 777-200ER carrying 239 people vanished exactly a week ago, while on an overnight flight to Beijing but a search that …

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Pakistan’s Blowback Mountain

The major problem facing Pakistan is the vacillation of the government in dealing decisively with the terrorists because (1) fear of blowback in the urban areas if there is any major counter-insurgency operations in the mountains and (2) some terrorists groups in the Punjab (province) have loose links with influential political elements, they not only fear their presence in their …

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Pakistan’s State of Insecurity

To trace the origins of insecurity in Pakistan we must study both the natural and contrived deficiencies in our social, political and economic sectors. Ethnic and religious strife have not only morphed but become further complicated by ruthless terrorist activity. Unfortunately partisan and parochial viewpoints from both sides of the spectrum tend to be counter-productive in seeking practical long-lasting solutions …

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