Central Asia has increasingly dazzled players from near and far, once they’ve grasped its worth as a crucial source of energy — oil, gas, and hydroelectric power.
India’s Gambit in the Central Asian Abyss
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India
Has the Developing World Abandoned Iran?
In a recent interview, the eminent geo-strategist Ian Bremmer suggested that a “nuclear-armed Iran” is inevitable because, in an emerging “G-Zero World” where no single bloc of countries can dominate international affairs, the emerging powers can frustrate the West’s efforts to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. But recent years have given lie to this argument.
Afghanistan Dominates Latest U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue
United States-India cooperation continues to move beyond the economic and scientific to the military.
India’s Need for Iran’s Oil a Sticking Point for U.S. and Its Sanctions Regime
The third U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue next month will deal with contentious issues such as protectionism and sanctions.
U.S., India at Odds Over Iran Sanctions
The Obama administration’s attempts to punish Iran for its nuclear activities have had the unintended effect of causing strains in the US-India relationship.
The Fading U.S.-Pakistan Alliance
As the United States struggles to stabilize the volatile landscape in Afghanistan, assert a long-term strategic presence in Iraq, and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it is gradually confronting a precarious and consequential estrangement from its long-term strategic ally, Pakistan. With rising dissatisfaction among the Pakistani political elite and growing popular anger against America, Washington is on the verge of losing another vital ally.
Will Pakistan Counter India’s “Water Bomb” With a Nuclear Bomb?
Pakistan is apprehensive that dams India is building will threaten the flow of the Indus through Pakistan.
Australia Remilitarizes
Recent transformations in the international system, notably the rise of China and an economic slump in the West, are rapidly ushering in a new age in Australian foreign policy. Slowly the sleeping continent has awoken to the din of machinery in uranium mines, shipbuilders in dry docks, and the arrival of a new contingent of U.S. Marines – the latter only the most recent indication of a re-posturing of the country’s foreign policy against perceived Chinese expansionism.
Review: The Unraveling
In mid-September, bomb blasts and gunfire hit the U.S. Embassy and the NATO headquarters in Kabul, killing seven people. According to subsequent intelligence reports, the perpetrators were from the Haqqani network, which has been funded and supported by the government’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Pakistani government denied the U.S. accusations, but the tough reactions of both sides reveal the mutual mistrust and widening cleavage between the two counter-terrorism allies.
Pakistan: Reversing the Lens
Since the United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, Pakistan has lost more than 35,000 people, the vast bulk of them civilians. While the U.S. has had slightly over 1800 soldiers killed in the past 10 years, Pakistan has lost over 5,000 soldiers and police. The number of suicide bombings in Pakistan has gone from one before 2001, to more than 335 since.
“Terrorism,” as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says, “is not a statistic for us.”