South East Asia

After over three decades of conflict, a joint communique on December 7 between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated they were close to signing a peace treaty. This is good news for both countries, especially smaller and less economically developed Armenia, but also good news …

The whole point is to leverage this geostrategic project to coerce uncomfortable compromises from Russia in the Ukrainian Conflict while facilitating the US’ “Pivot (back) to Asia”. The first goal might fail, however, but the second likely won’t. Several interconnected developments strongly suggest that Germany’s plan to capture control of …

Many among the Alt-Media Community have an over-simplistic view of International Relations whereby they tend to imagine that all countries that support multipolarity are on the same side, which is why they chalk up “politically inconvenient” developments like last week’s tit-for-tat strikes between SCO members Iran and Pakistan as being …

The overall message of Iran is that it will continue to carry out attacks where it pleases. Iran doubled down on its decision to launch attacks against Iraq and Pakistan over the last few days. Iran’s Ministry of Defense said Iran has a right to protect itself, claiming the attacks …

The badlands that form the Iran-Pakistan border have for years been notorious for smuggling, human trafficking, narcotics trade, and of course, movement of insurgents and terrorists. It is anything but a tranquil frontier because skirmishes, shallow incursions and raids, and even occasional mortar shelling are fairly routine. But both countries …

Iran successfully advanced five strategic objectives: 1) preemptively thwarting an imminent terrorist attack from Pakistani soil; 2) flexing its military muscles before the domestic and international audiences; 3) suggesting that Pakistani-emanating terrorist threats are as dangerous as threats from Israel and the US; 4) reinforcing perceptions of Pakistan as a …

An Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil was driven by Iran’s efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst. Both …

The challenge ahead is a formidable one that will require the military-intelligence services to fully focus on this newly metastasized terrorist threat in order to emerge victorious, which in turn necessitates their top brass giving them the order to abandon the all-out nationwide crackdown against the opposition. Pakistan’s prior large-scale …

Unless there’s an all-out conventional war between Iran and Pakistan, which isn’t expected unless their newly exacerbated but long-running security dilemma spirals out of control into one by miscalculation (perhaps due to US meddling), Eurasian integration won’t be dealt a deathblow. Nevertheless, very clear limits will be placed upon it …

A Sunni militant group known for targeting rival Muslims has emerged as a dangerous new player in Pakistan, sending a pair of suicide bombers this week to detonate themselves inside a church in the deadliest ever attack against Pakistani Christians. The brutal assault, which killed 85 worshippers during Sunday services, …