This is the final article in the three part series: Pakistan Beyond Bomb and Burqas. It examines the Loom Workers’ Strike in Faisalabad, and how it challenges hegemonic discourses on Pakistan dictated by the War on Terror. Read part one of the series here.
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An examination of the Okara movement challenges hegemonic discourses of religious extremism and militancy in Pakistan. This is the second of a three part series. Read part one here.
An examination of the Okara movement, which served as a serious challenge to the oppressive power...
Neo-orientalist narratives representing Pakistan through the paradigm of security and geo-strategy neglect the struggles of the people on the ground. This is the first of a three part series.
Just before his untimely death and in the aftermath of the US raid in Pakistan that resulted in Osama bin Laden's killing, renowned intellectual Christopher Hitchens described Pakistan...
Over the past few years, minorities have faced increasing discrimination and even persecution in Pakistan.
Pakistan is full of regional divides. Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, power has been held mainly by the feudal and military elites of Punjab. Shockingly in the past few decades, prejudice predicated on caste, tribe and religion has escalated. This is an attempt to...
China’s idea of the free press differs from the Western idea of an independent fourth column. Professor Zhan Jiang looks at how a Marxist model of press freedom can be developed under the existing system.
During and after the 18th Party Congress, party and state leaders restated that China should be ruled by law and governed according to the Constitution. They also said...
By Svetlana Bocharova
As the Russian Internet is actively moving from the periphery to the avant-garde of socio-political life, the government brands it “the main threat to the wellbeing and stability” of Russia.
Analysts from the human rights group Agora have released a new report about Internet freedom in Russia. The full text of the...
Among other threats to press freedom, journalists in Italy continue to face potential prison time for defamation, a situation which is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
When Italy’s highest tribunal upheld a 14-month prison sentence last fall for criminal libel against Alessandro Sallusti, editor of the newspaper Il Giornale, the move not...
Although Nigeria’s civilian government has adopted many methods of suppressing the free media from its military predecessors, Chris Ogbondah argues that the crushing brutality of the dictatorship years has subsided – albeit with disturbing exceptions. This is the last of a two part series. Read part one...
Kenya has gone to the polls, but the the new president's victory is contested and might affect relations with the US.
Kenya's election commission on Saturday announced that last week the deeply ethnically divided nation had elected Uhuru Kenyatta to be the new president by a narrow margin. Everyone's mind is focus on the fear of new violence similar to what happened...
50 years after independence, Kenyans go to the ballot on March 4, 2013 to elect a new leadership under a new constitutional order. The country seeks to make a clean break from the challenges and failures of its past. The governance institutional structure will be unlike any the country has had.
History repeats itself, first as miscarried naïve aspiration, next as...
Part 2 of a series which looks at the fractious upcoming Afghan presidential election next year.
Another potential candidate is Asadullah Khalid. Khalid is a Karzai loyalist, and currently the head of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s domestic intelligence agency. Well-groomed and stylish, between 2005 and 2008 he was Governor of Kandahar, and between...
A Look at the Fractious Upcoming Presidential Election in Afghanistan
On February 15 2013 U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham appeared with Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai in a joint press conference to announce the U.S.’s plans to support fair and free Presidential and provincial elections in Afghanistan in 2014. Although it is clear that Afghanistan is the junior...
Since 2002, a large amount of U.S. funds flowing into Afghanistan has been diverted to the Taliban by local strongmen, resulting in a continued presence of the militia. The challenge post-2014 will be to reverse the West’s top-down strategy, creating a grassroots-driven incentive for peace and development.
“In Tora Bora a top CIA officer landed with several boxes of...
The global threat landscape this year will be shaped by the impending withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan. Jihadists will seek to extend their activities compounded by the uprisings in the Middle East.
A new global threat landscape is emerging with the impending withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014. This threat configuration will be...
The international sanctions against Iran have been effective. However, they also made the Iranian elite more practical and cynical by teaching it how to survive under external economic pressure. This is the first of a two part series.
International reports on the economic and political situation in Iran prepared by different respected analytical institutes and...
Sanctions against Iran have negatively impacted the lives of the Iranian people, and they continue to do so despite lacking a legal foundation. If we recognize the inhumanity and illegality of sanctions, we can better understand the Iranian government’s response to them.
During the past three decades, sanctions have been the main hallmark of the United States’...
Iranians have become adept at circumventing economic sanctions which, even if perfectly implemented, would be unlikely to stop Iran’s nuclear aspirations. Diplomacy is the only viable solution.
In light of Senator Chuck Hagel’s appointment as US Secretary of Defense, the issue of Iran — and the economic sanctions, in particular — promises to stay in play...
Sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and the European Union violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus undermining the legitimacy of the measures and their originators.
Multilateral and unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Iran are contrary to the principle of the Universal Declaration of...
Robert D. Crane, former adviser to the late President Richard Nixon, discusses the role of shari'a and secularism, and the issue of whether the “Arab Spring” winds up as an “Arab Winter”. The following is an executive summary from the essay, originally featured in the ...
Omar Farahat examines the origins of Salafis, and argues that the question of shari’a has to be resolved before Egypt can witness any kind of durable stability. The following is an executive summary from the essay, originally featured in the Arches Quarterly....
Much has been discussed regarding the Turkish system of governance as a model of ‘Post-Islamism’ for countries emerging out of the ‘Arab Spring’. However, before such claims can be made, it is important to understand the model. The following is an executive summary of Mustafa Akyol's essay from the ...
The following is an extract from George Joffé’s essay, “The Arab Intifada in Perspective,” as he discusses the role of Islamist parties in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.
To appreciate what has actually happened in the Arab world as a result of what in the West is...
The recent incursion by Chinese troops in Ladakh's Depsang area should serve as a timely reminder to India that timelines for infrastructure development along the Chinese frontier and plans to boost military capability, do not have the luxury of slippages.
Almost exactly four years ago, the outgoing UPA-I government's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was meeting for...
With the recent incursion of PLA soldiers inside Indian territory, Mayank Singh argues that the bilateral trade agreement with China needs to be made an instrument to resist Chinese aggression.
“Not a blade of grass grows there,” proclaimed Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959, while referring to the Chinese incursion in Aksai Chin in the Ladakh region of...
The longer the India-China border face-off persists, the worse it will for the Indian government since the perception that New Delhi is unable to deal with Beijing’s bullying tactics will only get reinforced with time.
For Nisar Ahmed, the sudden arrival of television crews into Leh, Ladakh’s capital, last week was disconcerting. As a top hotelier, he was sprucing...
The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, presents an overview of their recent conference on the 50th anniversary of the India-China war of 1962.
Founded in 2011, the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) is an Indo-American think tank devoted to providing an Indian perspective on political, socio-cultural and economic foreign policy matters, and...
Governments are struggling to decide whether the Mekong River should continue to feed 60 million people or become a source of hydroelectric power.
What started as a debate about a hydroelectric dam has become a high profile dispute over the future of food security in the Mekong region. The controversial Xayaburi Dam in Laos has resulted in increasing political tensions and a...
On the occasion of Gandhi’s assassination anniversary, Dr. M. Krishnamurthi speaks about the real meaning of Gandhi’s fasts.
There is a general impression doing the rounds and assiduously circulated by interested politicians and agitators, that Mahatma Gandhi undertook a number of fasts unto death to press his demand for the independence of India. There is nothing...
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