• Operation Gibraltar and Pakistan’s Strategic Miscalculation

    The 1965 India–Pakistan war is often remembered through the lens of battlefield encounters and ceasefire diplomacy. Less attention is paid to the strategic decision that set the conflict in motion. That decision—Operation Gibraltar—was not merely a military plan. It was a political gamble rooted in faulty assumptions about Kashmir, India, and the nature of limited…

  • The Arrest of Nicolás Maduro as a Blueprint for Confronting Global Authoritarianism

    The arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—whether through international legal mechanisms, coordinated sanctions, or extradition under universal jurisdiction—should serve as a defining blueprint for how the international community, led by the United States, confronts authoritarianism and dictatorship around the world. For decades, dictators have survived not because of legitimacy or popular support, but because of…

  • The Exploitation of Intelligence Expertise in Strategic Studies: A Critical Examination of the Colombage Thesis and the Case of Source “05”

    This report provides a critical examination of Admiral JSK Colombage’s PhD thesis, Asymmetric warfare at Sea; The Case of Sri Lanka , analyzing its reliance on intelligence obtained through profound ethical breaches. The investigation focuses on the thesis’s external supervisor, Professor Rohan Gunaratna, and his systematic exploitation of high-value human intelligence source, Mr. Kagusthan Ariaratnam…

  • Ports and Permissive Space: Can Gwadar’s Growth Be Exploited by Traffickers?

    Gwadar port’s fast-growing infrastructure of new berths, enlarged container yards, vast free-trade zones, and private logistics centres poses an imperative challenge of governance to the Indian Ocean region’s maritime security architecture. However, beneath this veneer of legitimate development, a disquieting vulnerability exists: the emergence of handling capacity, customs exemptions, and private warehousing has created de…

  • From FATF to the High Seas: Why Financial Transparency Is Now a Maritime Imperative

    The New Geography of Illicit Flows Money and contraband move together, and both increasingly travel by sea. From methamphetamine shipments off Pakistan’s Makran coast to the digital wallets flagged in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) October 2025 warning, the pattern is unmistakable: the maritime and financial commons are converging. Criminal and extremist networks no…

  • China’s Nuclear Legacy and the PLA’s Quest for Technological Supremacy

    When the first atomic device detonated over Xinjiang’s Lop Nur desert in 1964, Beijing entered the nuclear club with a blast designed as much for prestige as for security. Six decades later, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) remains the engine of China’s nuclear enterprise, driving it from crude fission experiments to intercontinental missiles and hypersonic…

  • The Chinese Invasion of Tibet That Changed Asia’s Map

    On 7 October 1950, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the upper reaches of the Jinsha River and entered Tibet’s eastern province of Kham. In a swift, coordinated military operation, over 80,000 Chinese troops surrounded and defeated the small Tibetan army. Within days, the border town of Chamdo fell. Within months, Tibet’s centuries-long autonomy collapsed…

  • The 17 Points of Betrayal: How China Legalised an Occupation

    When the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) entered Tibet in October 1950, China justified its invasion as a “liberation from feudalism.” Yet, after the military victory at Chamdo, Beijing needed something far more potent than battlefield success — it needed legitimacy. What followed was one of the most coercive acts of diplomacy in modern Asia: the…

  • The Uprising and the Exodus: How the Dalai Lama’s Flight Redefined Asia

    By early 1959, the simmering resentment in Tibet had reached a breaking point. Nearly a decade had passed since the signing of the Seventeen Point Agreement, and the promises of autonomy had turned to ash. Monasteries were being dismantled, monks imprisoned, and Tibetan officials replaced by Chinese cadres. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had established…

  • Tibet: A Frozen Conflict at the Roof of the World

    Seventy-five years after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the Jinsha River and occupied Tibet, the region remains one of the world’s most militarised zones. Beijing calls it “peaceful liberation.” Tibetans call it an occupation that has never ceased.But beyond questions of politics and sovereignty, Tibet has become the geopolitical hinge of the Himalayas —…