Nepal’s Hydropower Ambitions and Regional Energy Trade
Nepal’s hydropower sector has quietly become one of South Asia’s more significant success stories in cross-border energy cooperation, even as the country’s own energy security remains only partially secured. As of March 2026, Nepal’s installed hydropower capacity had reached approximately 4,105 megawatts, up from roughly 700 megawatts fifteen years ago, according to sector data reported […]
The Maldives’ Foreign Policy Balancing Act
The Maldives’ foreign policy is no longer simply about choosing between India and China. Its national security is increasingly tied to how effectively it manages competition among major powers in the Indian Ocean. As strategic rivalry intensifies across the region, MalĂ© is seeking to preserve its independence by maintaining relationships with competing powers rather than […]
Afghanistan Cannot Fight Hunger While Sheltering the TTP
Some 7.6 million Afghans missed out on food assistance that had already been planned for them. That is not merely a footnote in the next donor appeal. It is a symptom of something larger and more complex: dwindling funding, an increasingly isolated economy, fractured regional relations, and rulers in Kabul who continue to place ideology […]
Pakistan–Kuwait Defense Cooperation: An Emerging Strategic Partnership
Pakistan and Kuwait have moved their defense relationship into new territory. Kuwait has ratified the bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in 2023, demonstrating both countries’ commitment to strengthening military cooperation and institutional collaboration. More than a routine diplomatic development, the agreement signals a broader shift in Gulf security dynamics. Gulf states are increasingly looking beyond […]
Afghan Girls and Five Lost Years of School Under Taliban Rule
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, one of the most enduring symbols of Afghanistan’s humanitarian and political crisis is not found on the battlefield but in the empty classrooms where millions of girls should be studying. The denial of education has become far more than a domestic policy; it is a deliberate instrument […]
Pakistan’s Evolving Role in Changing Strategic and Diplomatic Environment
For most of the last century, a nation’s standing in the world was measured largely by the size of its army and the reach of its weapons. That measure is no longer sufficient, and clinging to it will leave Pakistan poorly equipped for the century we are actually living in. Influence today flows through channels […]
Book Review: Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security
Book Title and Author’s Name: Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security, Nicholas Grossman. I.B. Tauris, 2018, 240. As the world continues to struggle in understanding the revolutionary paradigm of drones, their usage in multidimensional spaces, from surveillance to combat, terrorists to law enforcement, has created a never-ending loop of entanglements. […]
The Challenge to Taliban Rule Is No Longer Just Military, It’s Religious
A religious scholar has just done something the Taliban likely feared more than any battlefield defeat. He questioned their legitimacy in the language they claim as their own. Maulvi Tariq Usman, a prominent religious scholar from Afghanistan, argued that armed resistance against the Taliban is in fact permissible under Sharia under the current circumstances. For […]
Afghan Resistance Issues Warning to Foreign Terrorists in Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s resistance has just issued its bluntest ultimatum yet. The National Resistance Front and its allied fighting groups have told every foreign terrorist operating under Taliban patronage to pack up and leave the country immediately, or be treated as a target on the battlefield. No more ambiguity. The message landed with a simple but forceful […]