• Not Without Cause: Iran’s Mistrust of Pakistan Is Rooted in Experience

    Pakistan’s mediation between the United States and Iran continues. Delegations arrive and depart from Islamabad. Communiqués describe progress, or proximity to progress, in language calibrated to neither confirm nor foreclose. The ceasefire—brokered by Pakistan on April 8, extended once at Islamabad’s request — is holding, unevenly. The process is alive. What is under serious strain…

  • Nepal’s Foreign Policy at Stake: When Strategic Cooperation Becomes Strategic Dependency

    There is a threshold in bilateral relationships between unequal states at which cooperation becomes structural dependency. The threshold is not marked with a sign. It passes gradually, through accumulated agreements, growing financial obligations, and deepening institutional ties that make any recalibration increasingly costly. Nepal is approaching that threshold in its relationship with China. It has…

  • Beijing’s Courtship, New Delhi’s Concern: The Quiet Battle for Nepal’s Strategic Alignment

    India and Nepal share an open border, a cultural affinity that predates both countries’ current forms, and a bilateral relationship with more complications than either government tends to acknowledge publicly. China and Nepal share a high-altitude frontier, a history of limited direct contact, and a relationship that has grown considerably more active since 2015. Two…

  • From Iqbal to Maududi: How Intellectual Orthodoxy Shaped Pakistan’s Anti-Ahmadi Legal Order

    Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadi policies cannot be understood without grasping their intellectual roots in 20th-century Muslim thought in South Asia. Two towering figures — the philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal and the theologian-politician Abul A’la Maududi — shaped the ideological environment in which anti-Ahmadi sentiment was transformed from theological dispute into state policy. Though different in method and emphasis,…

  • Digital Tax Heist: U.S. Tech Giants Rob Bangladesh Blind

    The February 2026 United States–Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade is being marketed as a pragmatic bargain: tariff relief in exchange for market access. But a close reading of its digital and security provisions tells a harsher story. Articles 3.1 to 3.3, read together with Section 4 and the commercial and military purchase commitments in the…

  • Military Shopping Spree: Uncle Sam Dictates Bangladesh’s Arsenal

    Bangladesh is not being offered a trade agreement in the ordinary sense. It is being handed a strategic compliance package dressed up as market access. The publicly released text of the February 2026 U.S.-Bangladesh Agreement on Reciprocal Trade does not merely touch tariffs and commerce; it reaches deep into digital policy, sanctions compliance, export controls,…

  • SAGAR to MAHASAGAR: Navy Leads India’s Wider Maritime Push

    A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the MAHASAGAR vision during his visit to Mauritius, India’s maritime strategy is entering a new phase. The initiative marks an evolution of the earlier SAGAR doctrine—Security and Growth for All in the Region—which for nearly a decade guided India’s engagement with countries across the Indian Ocean. Announced…

  • A Training Bridge at Sea: Over 2,000 Sri Lankan Officers Gained Skills Through India’s Naval Outreach

    The arrival of a tall sailing ship in a Sri Lankan harbour was usually viewed as little more than a ceremonial gesture — a moment of pageantry, colourful flags and goodwill. Yet the visit by INS Tarangini was far more than a symbolic port call. It represented a long and steady investment in human capital…

  • Gas, Gold, and Grievance: Who Does Balochistan’s Wealth Actually Serve?

    Balochistan has historically accounted for a significant share of Pakistan’s domestic natural gas production—at its peak, over half—though its share has declined substantially in recent decades as production from other provinces has grown. The Reko Diq copper and gold deposit in Chagai district holds billions of tonnes of ore, placing it among the largest undeveloped…

  • How Tibet’s Identity Was Systematically Erased From Independent Nation to Autonomous Region

    Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, fell to the Chinese army in March 1959. It was more than merely an end to a failed Tibetan uprising. It was the collapse of Tibet’s independence and the start of a prolonged struggle for sovereignty, identity, and international law. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) takeover of Lhasa by force and the…