Fighting in northern Afghanistan between the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Daesh has greatly escalated recently. ISIS militants have spread their activities beyond their original base in the eastern province of Nangarhar in an attempt to expand their foothold in the country, as the Taliban seek to stop them. This was…
Author’s Introductory Note Environmental modification techniques (ENMOD) for military use constitute, in the present context of global warfare, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Rarely acknowledged in the debate on global climate change, the world’s weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. Both the US and Russia…
China appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a…
Mapping the Taliban Last week saw a historic meeting in Islamabad between the intelligence chiefs of China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran. While the details of the meeting were not disclosed beyond statements implying that counter-terrorism was a dominating theme, it is a safe assumption that the war in Afghanistan was a major topic of discussion….
A Chinese campaign to forcibly assimilate ethnic Uyghurs in its north-western province of Xinjiang in a bid to erase nationalist sentiment, counter militancy, and create an ‘Uyghur Islam with Chinese characteristics’ ignores lessons learnt not only from recent Chinese history but also the experience of others. The campaign, reminiscent of failed attempts to undermine Uyghur…
Increased Pakistani dependence on China to help it avert resorting to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid a financial and economic crisis spotlights fears that the terms of Chinese investment in massive Belt and Road-related projects would not pass international muster. Concerns that China’s US$ 50 billion plus investment in Pakistani infrastructure and energy,…
