While the world has been distracted, even amused, by the diplomatic tussle around China’s recent high-altitude balloon flights across North America, there are signs that Beijing and Washington are preparing for something so much more serious: armed conflict over Taiwan. Reviewing recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region raises a tried-and-true historical lesson that bears repeating at this dangerous moment in […]

There’s something irrational about President Biden’s knee-jerk dismissal of China’s 12-point peace proposal titled “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.” “Not rational” is how Biden described the plan that calls for de-escalation toward a ceasefire, respect for national sovereignty, establishment of humanitarian corridors and resumption of peace talks. “Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution […]

Leading members of the fundamentalist group blame supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada for the country’s unsustainable drift The clash of internal currents is wearing the movement down a year and a half after it regained power in Afghanistan. He did not even appear in public when the Taliban regained power two decades later. Hibatullah Akhundzada praised his movement’s advance in every […]

Two alleged militants were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Shapok and Sammi areas of Kech district on Thursday. Officials said security forces had launched a search operation on a tip-off about the presence of suspected militants in the mountainous area of Kech district. The alleged militants were identified as Shoaib and Yahya who belonged to […]

89 TTP men also arrested in covert operations that lasted 11 months In a major breakthrough, the counter-terrorism authorities have arrested over 170 most-wanted terrorists in a series of covert operations spanning over 11 months across the country’s largest province of Punjab. Samaa’s Investigation Unit gained access to official documents, which revealed that the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) launched covert […]

How ASEAN Survives—and Thrives—Amid Great-Power Competition The defining geopolitical contest of our time is between China and the United States. And as tensions rise over trade and Taiwan, among other things, concern is understandably mounting in many capitals about a future defined by great-power competition. But one region is already charting a peaceful and prosperous path through this bipolar era. […]

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday that the signing of the Doha agreement in 2020 had ‘weakened’ Washington’s partners in Afghanistan and empowered the Islamic Emirate (IEA). Addressing a press conference, Price said in answer to a question on the third anniversary of the signing of the deal that “the agreement empowered the Taliban (IEA), it weakened […]

Thomas Nicholson, the European Union’s special representative for Afghanistan, met on Thursday with the Islamic Emirate’s Foreign Minster Amir Khan Muttaqi. On twitter, Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the two sides discussed political issues, fighting corruption and security issues. In the meeting, Nicholson praised the Islamic Emirate for their efforts to ensure […]

The leader of the Islamic Emirate, Mawlavi Hibatullah Akhundzada, has met with a number of scholars from Kandahar, Kabul, Kapisa, Baghlan, Faryab, Khost and Nangarhar provinces, the IEA’s spokesman said in a statement on Thursday. According to the statement, the Ministers of National Defense, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Communications and Information Technology were also present at the meeting. The meeting […]

The CCP’s Quest for a Fresh Source of Legitimacy For the past three decades, the Chinese Communist Party has grounded its political rule in the success of its administration—particularly in managing the economy. In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, an implicit political bargain was struck between the government and the general population: the people would accept authoritarian […]