INDIA has assumed the chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for 2023, and has planned a series of meetings, including the forthcoming defence ministerial in New Delhi and the meeting of foreign ministers in Goa. The SCO is emerging as an important regional organisation in Eurasia given that its membership (China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the […]

EACH year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom publishes its annual report, which normally includes a chapter on Pakistan. In its 2022 report, the Commission focused on blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, forced conversions and forced marriages, and cases of targeted killings, lynchings, and mob violence. Based on the commission’s recommendation, the US State Department […]

WHEN you enter the Arsenal Palace in Vienna, which has now been turned into a war museum, one finds an emphatic short statement engraved on the side pillar of the grand entrance: ‘Krieg gehort ins museum’, which translates to ‘War belongs in a museum’. The galleries of the museum sho­wcase the military history of Austria, […]

PAKISTAN’S polity is fractured. Politicians are not willing to unlock horns; the economy is slipping down a steep slope; and terrorist forces are resurging. Some analysts view this situation as essentially a political crisis which will resolve by itself. Others, less optimistic, find Pakistan in the midst of a ‘polycrisis’, with political unrest, an economic […]

THE US is having second thoughts about the Washington Consensus it had evolved in the 1990s. At that time, the Cold War with the Soviet Union had just ended, and the world had moved into the phase of globalisation and interdependence. It seemed then that the Western governance model of liberal democracy and market economies […]

RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has won a third presidential term. His dominance of the Turkish political scene for over two decades has been marked both by enviable successes and trying challenges. He shot into prominence when he was elected mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. As mayor, he introduced high standards of urban good governance […]

RUSSIA’S ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine, launched on Feb 24, 2022, is morphing into a long, drawn-out war. Initially, Russia made substantial territorial gains, but the Ukrainians fought back and liberated several regions of their country. Nearly a year and a half later, the war is deadlocked. There are no prospects of either side securing […]

IN the heart of Vienna lies a flourishing Pakistani restaurant that caters to thousands of tourists and locals. The owner has credited much of the restaurant’s success to an enabling business environment. For instance, while his restaurant is regularly and rigorously inspected by government officials, there is no expectation of or demand for bribes. One […]

NARENDRA Modi has come a long way from the time he was denied a US visa for his role in the Gujarat pogrom. Times have changed. He is now the prime minister of a country that the US wants to build as a counterweight to rising China. The US has honoured him, with his state […]