South Asia

The New Dutch Disease

The New Dutch Disease

The Dutch Disease has evolved. In today’s Global South, it is no longer driven only by oil and gas but by aid, remittances, and strategic rents that create fragile, consumption-led economies while eroding state capacity, productivity, and social trust.

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The Revival of Ethnic Engineering in Northern Afghanistan

The Revival of Ethnic Engineering in Northern Afghanistan

The reported TTP attack in Takhar is not an isolated security incident but part of a deeper historical pattern of ethnic engineering in northern Afghanistan. Tracing its roots to 19th-century state-building policies, the article examines how militant proxies, demographic displacement, and settler strategies are once again reshaping Tajik-majority regions under Taliban rule.

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The Structural Costs of Hindutva Governance

The Structural Costs of Hindutva Governance

India’s shift toward Hindutva governance has transformed identity into policy. As citizenship, culture, and power merge, over 28 crore minorities are pushed to the margins—fracturing institutions, normalising exclusion, and leaving long-term scars on the republic’s social fabric.

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A critical reading of Zalmay Khalilzad’s interview reveals strategic bias on ISKP, TTP safe havens, and Pakistan’s role in US–Taliban diplomacy.

Khalilzad on ISKP, TTP, and Pakistan

Zalmay Khalilzad’s Tolo News interview exposes ambiguities in US policy toward Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. His remarks on ISKP, the TTP, and Pakistan reflect an effort to normalize the Taliban while shifting responsibility for regional instability, drawing false equivalences between alleged ISKP cells in Pakistan and the openly operating TTP in Afghanistan.

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Taliban: Three Decades of Faith, Fear, and Erasure

Taliban:Three Decades of Faith, Fear, and Erasure

For nearly three decades, the Taliban have pursued a singular vision of faith enforced through violence and law. From massacres and forced identification under the first Emirate, to insurgent-era sectarian terror, and now a legal architecture of exclusion, their rule has steadily erased Afghanistan’s religious pluralism, pushing minorities toward extinction.

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Pakistan’s IT sector and Digital Nation Act 2025 offer a scalable path to break the current account deficit and escape chronic economic volatility.

Pakistan’s Digital Escape Route

Pakistan’s reliance on import-heavy exports has repeatedly triggered balance-of-payments crises. The Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025 positions IT as a zero-raw-material export capable of delivering scalable growth, fiscal stability, and long-term economic resilience.

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The Weaponization of the Rivers

The Weaponization of the Rivers

The Indus Waters Treaty is facing its gravest test as India’s unilateral actions on the Chenab transform water from a shared resource into a tool of coercion. In a climate-stressed region, disrupted river flows and suspended data sharing threaten Pakistan’s agrarian economy, food security, and regional stability.

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A Fugitive Insurgency

A Fugitive Insurgency

The TTP’s 2025 report projects an image of renewed strength and nationwide reach. In reality, it reflects a border-bound, fugitive insurgency using inflated statistics and psychological warfare to mask sustained pressure from Pakistan’s intelligence-led counter-terrorism campaign and the regional impact of instability in Afghanistan.

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