South East Asia

As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, Washington is considering options to ensure its intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism capabilities are maintained. Recent reporting suggests that United States is looking to use bases in Pakistan and in the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia — although without success so far. Washington is …

Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died a few days back. The death-news pulls back the lie the US political leader uttered and sold forcefully around the world. That was not a petty lie. That was a devastating lie – creating a premise for an imperialist invasion of a …

With foreign influences and the pandemic undermining democracy in the V4 and the Western Balkans, external security – delivered via NATO – is fundamental, Kurt Volker argues. After a meeting-heavy June that saw the leaders of the international community converge on several stages and fora, it appears as though China …

Pakistan’s stakes in Afghanistan are rising as U.S. and NATO troops prepare to leave. All-out war after the withdrawal could push more Afghan refugees across the border and strengthen Pakistani militants. Islamabad should ratchet up pressure on the Taliban to engage in peace talks. What’s new? The fast-paced withdrawal of foreign …

For the past four decades, a narrative has taken hold among policymakers and the general public alike suggesting that China’s rise will continue indefinitely, even when mathematics and demographics suggest otherwise. Between the 1980s and the turn of the millennium, this notion was fueled by China’s astonishing double-digit growth. In …

In July 1971, one month after the publication of the Pentagon Papers and a year before the Watergate break-in that would eventually cause his downfall, Richard Nixon gave one of the most interesting, and in retrospect, important, speeches of his political career. Still relatively unblemished by scandal, Nixon was cruising …

The U.S. will leave a number of troops that is much larger than a typical security detail to guard its embassy in Kabul, along with American forces at the Kabul airport to help protect the vital facility for a time, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday. “Afghanistan is not going to be …

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday denounced as “idiocy” his country’s past policy of becoming a “front-line state” in the U.S.-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan, blaming the policy for the persistent security and economic challenges facing Islamabad. “We can be, and will always remain, partners in peace with …

Each time they lash out aggressively or pick fights they do the hawks’ bidding, making it easier to stoke resistance and anti-Beijing sentiment. Chinese foreign policy has become more assertive and heavy-handed in the last decade, and as a result it has alienated some of its neighbors and fueled greater …

U.S. officials think Kabul could fall to the Taliban within six months, a sad indictment of our multibillion effort to build security there. It is hard to be in a war, but sometimes even harder to leave. One reason is that a war’s goals may remain unfulfilled. Wise states do …