Vikram Sood
Paris Attacks: If IS faces setbacks, may react with more terror
The serial terror attacks in Paris on Friday, which left more 127 dead and many more injured, was the third terror incident in recent times and by far the largest…
Strategic relevance of Gilgit and Baltistan
Gilgit and Baltistan are parts of India, as much as the rest of the J & K state is, but this region does not seem to figure too prominently on…
Are we a bad news nation?
Have we have become a ‘bad news’ nation, forever self-flagellating and unable to see anything positive around ourselves? We are also showing up as a nation that is incapable of…
Becoming a leading power isn’t easy
Prime Minister Modi’s seven-day mission to France, Germany and Canada will have taken him to seven cities, covering several thousand kilometres and attending innumerable functions. By all accounts, a success,…
Six years later, are we ready?
Six years ago most of us sat and watched a carnage in Mumbai being enacted on our TV screens. It seemed like a bad dream as we watched terrorists in…
The Gathering Storm
It is a troubled world that we live in today and there are many reasons for this. Draw a straight line from Pakistan to Turkey, swing down to the Gaza…
Kill funding to kill terrorism
Terrorism, like almost every other human activity that involves production and creation of goods and services, needs money. Collecting funds initially through donations, borrowing or robbing banks and the rich…
When Modi made his moves in the US
There was more to Narendra Modi’s visit to the US than the razzmatazz of Madison Square Garden and Central Park. He had gone to the US after three basic foreign…
Reinvention of Jihadi Terror from Pakistan
The Islamic State of Iraq and Shams (ISIS) is neither a magical nor a mythical creation but the creation of vested interests. The Afghan Mujahedeen, followed by al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were creations…
Why jihad against India must continue
The statement by Al Qaeda leader Al Zawahiri about India, Myanmar (he called it Burma – something that the Americans do also) is too important to be ignored by the…
Role of Pak Army in domestic turmoil
This is no Arab Spring. There is no Tahrir Square either. There is no spontaneous peoples’ movement. Only a movement led from the top and more a soup of four…
The India Pakistan merry-go-round
Narendra Modi’s invitation to SAARC leaders for the swearing in May was a smart move and it threw three groups into a spin. As the startled Nawaz Sharif government went…
Armageddon in slow motion: Threat to India
Bloody wars have been fought before but today’s media communications and live coverage has brought the horrors to our bedrooms, in almost real time. In the past nations fought in…
Afghanistan’s Three New Crises
Afghanistan today faces three emerging crises just when one felt that the country, after decades of turmoil and violence unremittingly imposed from external forces, might be looking at a chance…
The games nations play
In the early days of the Cold War, nationalism was a particularly bad word in underdeveloped or developing countries, whose primary purpose was to service the First World and fulfil…
Pakistan’s Domestic Jihad
Pakistan watchers would not find the current spate of terror in that country surprising because there has been a steady escalation in its lethality, its dramatic impact, geographical range and…
Siachen is not low hanging fruit
History’s lessons, the immutability of geography and the politics of any region will determine how nations behave with each other. Nations cannot up and away and change location from a…
Pakistan – On a treadmill, going nowhere
There are not many in Pakistan or outside who can confidently describe the situation there. Far too many contradictions have surfaced. Maybe no-one is really in charge. There are peace…
Other countries pay real price for US’ mistakes
Recently The New York Times announced with breathless urgency that China was ramping up its military spending to $148 billion, up from $139.2 billion last year, adding that China already…
Managing the nation’s defence, somehow
Nine officers and men dead in the last six months in two submarine accidents with one submarine written off and another grounded. Who is responsible for the death of these…
Islamic Emirate of Pakistan
In her essay, ‘Islamisation of Jinnah’ (Newsline, Pakistan, February 2014), Ayesha Siddiqa described Pakistan as ‘a hybrid-theocracy in which there are limited visible spaces where Islamic Sharia is formally implemented…
The message stands delivered
Quite often it is a thoughtless or tactless statement but it also serves the desired purpose of saying something and then denying or giving it a spin. The message stands…
Nepal’s democratic hopes, Indian and Chinese interests
Nepal’s efforts to establish a parliamentary democracy have had their difficult and almost hopeless phases for the last decade where political fault lines accentuated since the assassination of King Birendra.…
If ever the twain should meet…
The attack across the LoC by the Pakistan Army on August 6 was soon after Pakistan Prime Minister called for better relations with India. This act and the continuing provocation…
No lunch in Lahore yet
Peace with Pakistan is desirable. But it’s also a grievous error of judgement to misread smiles when behind them lie murderous intentions. Peace between nations is a laudable objective and…
Is China nervous?
India needs to remain wary of China given that country’s behaviour in the last few years, despite the smiles, handshakes and all those diplomatic niceties with noble intentions. There has…
Our war on terror, the long haul
Soon after Mir Jaffar did a deal with Robert Clive and helped him grab Bengal in 1757, adivasis in the East Godavari district revolted in 1770 protesting against their exploitation…
Afghanistan – Future Uncertain
Events in Afghanistan had gathering momentum in March and quite apparently preparations for end 2014 were now looking serious and urgent. Closely following the visit of Defence Secretary Chuck Hegel to Kabul earlier in…
BRICS: A wall for some and a platform for others
Success at multilateral events like the recently concluded BRICS-5 summit at Durban would be difficult to measure. Nevertheless, members of BRICS must have done something right to have attracted considerable,…
Is there an endgame in Afghanistan?
The visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to Kabul had been greeted by two suicide attacks on March 9 that left 18 dead. The Taliban were obviously leaving…
China rises, India falters
In a recent conversation with President Zardari, China’s newPresident, Xi Jinping declared that his country supported Pakistan in its efforts to maintain national sovereignty and independence and spoke about China…
A policy of denial and defiance
What is with Pakistan’s rulers? Have they made their state a state in denial or are they themselves in a state of denial? It was both interesting and disturbing…
US India Pakistan – The Eternal Triangle
President Barack Obama will soon be sitting with his team to prioritise his to-do-list for his legacy that will be intertwined with how he handles his country’s strategic and national…
Afghanistan: Clash of the titans
The US-led war against Iraq in 2003 was never really about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons programme or the presence of al-Qaeda in that country. It was about gaining control…
Pakistan-US relations in a trough, but only for now
Towards the end of his last State of the Union address on January 24 President Obama said “One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the Seal Team took…
Tawang China’s fixation
“At 14,000 feet above the sea, the presence of a certain mystery can be felt, like having stepped into heaven…” is how a “In Search of Greener Pastures” – a…
Wanted Dead or Alive – Well, Not Quite
Once again, Pakistan’s most treasured jehadi jewel, Hafiz Saeed the leader of the Jamat ut Dawa, listed by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, and the ideological patron of…
Difa-e-Pakistan: The New Kid on the Block
They are there on web pages, on FaceBook and Twitter and, using the latest technology, wish to push their society back to the Dark Ages. This is the creed of…
Intelligence Reform
‘Nothing should be as favourably regarded as intelligence; nothing should be as generously rewarded as intelligence; nothing should be as confidential as the work of intelligence.’ Sun Tzu, The…
Iran-US Confrontation
The world has watched most of the last year and the one preceding, the Iran-US confrontation, at times with baited breath as the two seemed to be on hair…
Global Terrorism and Responses
In today’s context when we talk of international terrorism, we invariably refer to Islamic/jehadi terrorism. Unfortunately, the response to this, described as the global war on terror, is neither…
