Afghanistan news channel TOLOnews last week disclosed the contents of a letter that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had written to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. It concerned the slowness of progress in the peace process and the US’ intention to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by May 1. This …

There have now been 10 years of chaos in Syria, with many guilty actors. But efforts to reverse the course in the country are gaining steam. For example, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the Gulf last week featured many prominent themes, but Syria really stood out. His trips …

Surprise developments in protracted conflicts are rarely an overnight success. Nor do they happen in isolation or involve only the parties in the dispute. With regard to the India Pakistan deal on the Kashmir ceasefire, surely there were other actors at work, and more than one issue at play. It …