Afghanistan – A Long Way from Anywhere

Canberra, 20 September 2016 Afghanistan has been teetering at the edge of a precipice ever since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001. The situation has become further precarious, if such a thing is possible at all, after the current President Ashraf Ghani took over the reins of government two years back. The embattled […]

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Pakistan: Painting Itself into a Corner

  Canberra, 11 July 2016 Pakistan is a land of contrasts. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots in all aspects of normal life stands out as a prime example. However, the most starkly visible contrast is the two very different conceptual understanding within the nation of the role of religion in the State. […]

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The Pilgrims Progress: Russia in the Middle-East

  Canberra, 8 February 2016 For nearly four years of the Civil War, Russia was content with providing traditional support through the provision of arms and logistics to its client-state Syria, while the Assad regime battled for its very existence. Therefore, the direct military intervention in September 2015 can be considered a revolutionary act by […]

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SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN: DRAWING THE BATTLE LINES

Canberra, 20 January 2016 Ever since King Salman came to power in early 2015 and brought about sweeping changes in the hierarchy within the monarchy, the administration has been pursuing a more vigorous foreign policy than the one followed by the previous regime of King Abdullah. The focused objective has been to limit to the […]

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The Middle-East: An Open Pandora’s Box

  Singapore, 12 December 2015 Even before the discovery of the vast oil reserves in the region, the Middle-East had been the stomping ground of the global powers of the time. The past century has seen the region embroiled in convoluted conflicts that have simmered and altered shape, but have never really been brought to […]

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TURKEY – AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE

Canberra, 16 November 2015 The 2002 electoral victory of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or AKP) was a turning point in modern Turkey’s political narrative. The relatively young leadership of the party, while subscribing to the secular basis of the Turkish Republic, was openly demonstrative of their devout Muslim identity and […]

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THE ISLAMIC STATE—UNDERSTANDING AND COUNTERING ITS STRATEGY

Canberra, 22 September 2015 The Islamic State (IS) has been fighting the combined military might of the US-led coalition for over a year without having been contained or defeated as was promised by world leaders at the start of the war. The term ‘war’ is being used after due consideration, for what is going on […]

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AFGHANISTAN: FRAGILE AND FORGOTTEN

Canberra, 8 September 2015 Deliberate and repeated insurgent attacks, endemic corruption within the governing polity, a shrinking ‘formal’ economy, the end of a development boom as a more than decade long international war draws to a close that in turn has created unemployment levels of 35 to 40 per cent and a deteriorating security situation […]

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THE IMPROBABILITY OF PEACE IN SYRIA

Canberra, 25 August 2015 The regime of President Bashar al-Assad now effectively controls only about one-sixth of the territory of original Syria and its control is diminishing on a daily basis because it is losing territory to insurgents and facing a manpower shortage in the military. Till recently the regime continued to hold the core […]

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TURKEY ENTERS THE MAELSTROM

Canberra, 10 August 2015 Turkey is a NATO member and its location at the confluence of Europe, the Middle-East, the Caucasus and the Balkans is a definitive strategic advantage. This location and its history have provided Turkey with ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural connections with a large number of nations, some of which may not […]

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