Themes Archives - Page 6 of 29

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.

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.

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 Taliban’s Gamble with Afghan Healthcare

SAT Commentary December 10, 2025

The Taliban’s ban on Pakistani pharmaceutical imports is pushing Afghanistan toward a severe drug shortage. Driven by ideological ties to the TTP and escalating border tensions with Pakistan, this political maneuver threatens public health, inflates medicine costs, and leaves ordinary Afghans to bear the consequences of a crisis rooted in strategic posturing rather than market forces or natural disaster.

The Politicization of Universal Human Rights in Contemporary Power Politics

SAT Editorial Desk December 10, 2025

Universal human rights are increasingly politicized, with Western powers prioritizing strategic interests over moral consistency. This analysis traces historical precedents, selective enforcement, and emerging non-Western challenges that reveal the fragility of global human rights norms.

An analysis of how the Taliban’s promised 2021 amnesty has collapsed into widespread arrests, killings, and repression, echoing historical patterns of Taliban rule.

A New Afghanistan, Old Methods

SAT Editorial Desk December 9, 2025

The Taliban’s 2021 promise of a general amnesty has collapsed into systematic arrests, disappearances, and killings—especially in Panjshir. Despite assurances of moderation, evidence from 2021–2025 shows a deliberate campaign to eliminate former officials, suppress dissent, and rule through fear, mirroring the Taliban’s historical patterns of coercion and violence.

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.

South Asia Times

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