It Is Friendship With Russia, Not China, That Will Allow Pakistan to Cut the Cord With the US

It Is Friendship With Russia, Not China, That Will Allow Pakistan to Cut the Cord With the US

With Afghanistan and Pakistan as the staging grounds, politics in South and Central Asia appears to be coming full circle with the making and breaking of alliances involving major regional and international actors. The switching of goalposts by the erstwhile Cold War-era allies — keeping their converging and diverging geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geostrategic interests in…

Here’s Why India Might Secure an Anti-Iranian Sanctions Waiver from the US

Here’s Why India Might Secure an Anti-Iranian Sanctions Waiver from the US

The US doesn’t want to do anything that could risk Narendra Modi’s reelection next year such as inadvertently contributing to the explosive growth of petrol prices in his country, so it’s possible that Trump might grant America’s new strategic partner a waiver from the forthcoming anti-Iranian sanctions so long as India pledges to gradually reduce…

What’s Really Going On Behind the “Secret” Saudi-Russia Oil Deal

What’s Really Going On Behind the “Secret” Saudi-Russia Oil Deal

On Wednesday,Reuters reported the details of a private and “secret” deal reached between Russia and Saudi Arabia, a deal that was aimed at increasing oil output in order to offset the coming shock to oil prices that will follow U.S. efforts to starve Iran of its oil revenues. Notably, Reuters also noted that the deal…

US-Saudi Split Looming?

US-Saudi Split Looming?

The macabre case of a missing Saudi journalist is prompting speculation within the US political establishment about a historic parting of ways between Washington and Saudi Arabia. It’s not clear yet what actually happened Jamal Khashoggi, a 59-year-old prominent commentator who worked for the Washington Post, among other major news outlets. He has been missing for almost a…

Syria: The New Terra Nullius

Syria: The New Terra Nullius

SYRIA, seat of an Islamic Caliphate. Syria, site of the Middle East’s newest liberal democracy. Syria, socialist paradise. Syria, a corrupt and murderous dictatorship that practices genocide. Syria, a failed state. Syria a state that is too strong. Syria, soon to be partitioned into ethnic enclaves. Syria, a pawn of Iran. Syria, a tool of…