Perspectives
Badakhshan and the Limits of What Kabul Controls
Years of reading situation reporting on Afghanistan teach you to distrust the loud claim and pay attention to the quiet one. Not the casualty count
Haleema Khalid
Years of reading situation reporting on Afghanistan teach you to distrust the loud claim and pay attention to the quiet one. Not the casualty count
What if the most consequential funding relationship in the Ukraine war is not between Washington and Kyiv, but between Washington and Moscow? Follow the money.
From Ukraine to Gwadar, a map drawn in 1904 is quietly explaining every major crisis in the world today. Classical geopolitics never left.
The military onslaught launched by Israel on Gaza has pushed the Palestinian territory into an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. What began as a large-scale military operation
President Trump arrives in Beijing for high-stakes talks with President Xi, focusing on ending the U.S.-Iran conflict and navigating global economic realignment and trade stability.
Pakistan responded with restraint and precision while the adversary descended into reckless adventurism. A victory not just of arms, but of strategic maturity and national character.
Pakistan’s precise responses against cross-border terrorism uphold IHL principles of distinction and precaution while countering Taliban safe havens.
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.
From classrooms to conflict zones, language has always shaped empires. For Pakistan, ignoring it as a strategic asset may be its gravest miscalculation yet.