“Boxing the compass” is an old nautical term for locating the points on a magnetic compass in order to set a course. With the erratic winds blowing out of Washington these days, countries all over Asia and the Middle East are boxing the compass and re-evluating traditional foes and old alliances. India and Pakistan have…
How it happened The Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders like many European politicians is opposed to mass migration but unlike most of his counterparts who see the issue in terms of European security, for Wilders, the migration issue is part of a wider battle against Islam which he claims is incompatible with European society. Even still,…
Saudi Arabia and Iran are beginning a competition for influence with the new government led by Imran Khan in Pakistan. Both have big stakes involved. The Saudi position is much weakened by the war in Yemen, which is unpopular in Pakistan. Pakistan’s position is crucially important to both Riyadh and Tehran. Pakistan is the second-most…
The New Silk Roads, formerly One Belt One Road, then Belt and Road Initiative, were launched almost five years ago by President Xi Jinping, first in Astana (the Silk Road Economic Belt) and then in Jakarta (the Maritime Silk Road). Way beyond the acronym purgatory – and the “lost in translation” factor that neither name…
The abrupt postponement of next week’s Afghan conference in Moscow might look like an undignified Russian defeat in the face of a dangerous American provocation this morning, but it’s actually a strategic delay intended to make the outcome more fruitful by potentially including Kabul in this framework. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Afghan President…
While the world was waiting with bated breath to see whether the US would really stage yet another chemical weapons false flag attack in Syria, Washington tried to pull a fast one in Afghanistan by manufacturing a fake crisis between Russia and the Taliban. It’s no secret that the US fears the consequences of Russia’s…
