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Oil, Ports, and Proxies: The Battle for Hadhramawt and the Red Sea

SAT Editorial Desk December 9, 2025

The expulsion of Saudi-backed forces from Hadhramawt by UAE-aligned proxies signals the collapse of the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi alliance. In Yemen and Sudan, Abu Dhabi leverages non-state actors to secure ports, resources, and influence, while Riyadh prioritizes state stability and territorial consolidation. The result: a regional realignment where Gulf unity gives way to fierce intra-Gulf competition.

India’s Coercive Foreign Policy in 2025

Farwa Imtiaz December 9, 2025

India’s foreign policy in 2025 marks a clear break from its earlier soft-power orientation, shifting toward overt coercion and interference. Once seen as a restrained global actor, India now increasingly relies on hard power, diplomatic pressure, and transnational repression to shape external outcomes. Through cases in Canada, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Türkiye, this article shows how India has adopted a more assertive—and often destabilizing—approach to protect its expanding ambitions, using tools ranging from foreign interference to military escalation and economic coercion.

A deep dive into how the Afghan Taliban weaponises anti-Pakistan rhetoric to mask governance failures, rising poverty, and Afghanistan’s growing security meltdown.

The Politics of Blame

SAT Editorial Desk November 30, 2025

Afghanistan’s leadership has responded to recent international backlash by amplifying a narrative that frames Pakistan as the root of all Afghan crises. This rhetoric, pushed by senior Taliban officials, serves as a diversion from Kabul’s own administrative paralysis, economic collapse, and its complicity in enabling militant groups like the TTP. As poverty deepens and Afghanistan becomes a hub for dozens of terrorist outfits, the politics of blame has become the Taliban’s primary tool for deflecting scrutiny.

Afghanistan’s Trade Boycott: Strategic Miscalculation With Fiscal Consequences

Semavia Ishtiaq December 11, 2025

Afghanistan’s 2025 trade boycott of Pakistan exposes a strategic miscalculation. Despite efforts to shift toward Iran and Central Asia, Kabul remains structurally dependent on Pakistan’s mature trade corridors, customs revenue, labour mobility, and logistical efficiency. Alternative routes carry higher costs, sanctions risks, and operational delays, leaving the Taliban with mounting fiscal losses and regional constraints.

Why Kabul’s Trade Boycott Hurts Itself More Than Pakistan

Haleema Khalid November 12, 2025

Afghanistan’s bid to pivot trade away from Pakistan after the October 2025 closures reveals the limits of sovereignty without geography. Islamabad’s leverage remains structural, grounded in security and logistics, not coercion.

The End of Dollar Dominance: How Gold is Rewriting the Rules of Global Finance

Prof. (Dr.) Akhilesh Chandra Prabhakar November 10, 2025

After nearly eight decades of U.S. dollar supremacy, the global financial order is entering a historic transition. As nations seek refuge from debt crises, sanctions, and monetary manipulation, gold is regaining its status as the world’s most trusted store of value. Led by China’s strategic accumulation and supported by a worldwide shift toward de-dollarisation, this transformation signals the birth of a multipolar, asset-backed financial era, one anchored not in promises, but in tangible wealth.

Nuclear Technology at COP30: What It Means for Pakistan’s Clean Energy Goals

Hira Bashir December 2, 2025

At COP30, nuclear energy emerged as a key solution for global clean-energy transitions. For Pakistan, expanding nuclear power, especially through Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), offers a path to cleaner, reliable electricity, despite challenges like high costs and restricted technology access.

The Indus: From Historical Precedent to Modern Hydro-Politics

SAT Editorial Desk November 26, 2025

From ancient rivers to modern disputes, the Indus highlights how upstream projects and treaty tensions jeopardize Pakistan’s economy, environment, and food security.

India’s Climate Policy after COP28: Net Zero 2070 — A Fair Promise or a Risky Postponement?

Manya Singhal November 4, 2025

India’s Net Zero 2070 target reflects a delicate balance between development equity and climate urgency. While progress in renewables, green finance, and adaptation is visible, the absence of clear interim milestones risks turning ambition into delay. The real challenge lies in translating a distant horizon into measurable, near-term climate action before 2030.

The Defund Taliban Campaign

SAT Commentary December 11, 2025

The Defund Taliban Campaign examines how indirect US funding and a $7 billion abandoned arsenal have turned the Taliban into a regional force multiplier for militant groups.

$The Taliban’s new fatwa banning foreign militancy signals a shift in doctrine, but rising regional attacks and ideological fractures raise questions about its enforceability.$

Doctrine vs Reality: Can the Taliban Enforce Their Ban on Foreign Militants?

SAT Editorial Desk December 11, 2025

The Taliban’s new fatwa banning foreign militants has been hailed by officials in Kabul as a decisive theological shift. But rising attacks in the north, continued TTP operations, and mounting pressure from Washington expose a widening gap between doctrine and reality. As regional powers demand proof of enforcement, the decree risks becoming another symbolic gesture unless it translates into measurable action on the ground.

Criminalising Dissent: How New Laws and “Public Order” Politics Are Shrinking Democratic Space in India

Jerome Enriquez John December 10, 2025

India is witnessing a steady erosion of democratic freedoms as broad security laws, digital surveillance, and administrative restrictions redefine dissent as a threat rather than a constitutional right. From expanded use of UAPA and IT Rules to routine protest crackdowns and shrinking academic space, the cumulative impact is a quieter and increasingly constrained civic sphere.

The Internationalization of Domestic Security Events

SAT Editorial Desk December 14, 2025

The Bondi Beach attack illustrates a recurring global pattern: domestic crimes targeting Jewish communities are swiftly absorbed into transnational security frameworks. This acceleration often precedes verified attribution, reshaping diplomatic postures and weaponizing narratives at moments of heightened geopolitical contestation.

Blood and Gold: How Sudan’s War Became the World’s Greatest Human Rights Failure

Muhammad Anas Yasir December 12, 2025

Sudan’s war is not misunderstood, it is deliberately ignored. Fuelled by a gold economy tied to foreign profiteers, the conflict has dismantled the country while the world watches in silence. As the RSF and SAF wage a war built on extraction and exploitation, millions are displaced, starved, and erased from global concern. Sudan’s suffering exposes a deeper truth: human rights protections collapse where profit thrives and African lives remain invisible.

Pakistan-Only? The TTP’s Transnational Reality

SAT Editorial Desk December 1, 2025

While the TTP publicly claims its insurgency targets only Pakistan, evidence reveals a transnational reality. Supported by Afghan fighters and resources, and shaped by the Afghan Taliban’s strategic interests, the TTP exemplifies cross-border proxy warfare. Understanding its structure, motivations, and operational networks challenges simplistic “Pakistan-only” narratives and underscores the enduring complexities of South Asian security.