In The News

Solving Afghanistan: Elephant in the Room is Indo-Pakistan Rivalry

Harsh V. Pant February 1, 2010
The recent London Conference on Afghanistan showed the growing frustration of the world’s major powers with the situation in that country and their desperate desire for a way out. Afghan president Hamid Karzai wants reconciliation with elements of the Taliban while the US proposes offering financial incentives to encourage talks. But the Taliban rejected reconciliation and is unwilling to...

India Wants to Join the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a Weapon State

David P. Fidler, Sumit Ganguly January 27, 2010
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has suffered a lot of dents of late from its signatories: North Korea and Iran are just some examples. But the long standing refusal of India, Pakistan, and Israel – all possessors of nuclear weapons – to accede doesn’t help either. However, India has recently made overtures that it wishes to join the NPT as a nuclear weapon state (NWS...

In Digital Combat, U.S. Finds No Easy Deterrent

John Markoff, David E. Sanger, and Thom Shanker January 27, 2010
When considering the prospect of a cyberterrorism, defense officials are forced to acknowledge that the enemy holds the cards of “stealth, anonymity and unpredictability.” Even if the general location of an attack’s origin can be determined, it is practically impossible to discover whether it was commercially, politically, or individually motivated. As such, it is difficult to say when a military...

Kenya Fishermen See Upside To Pirates: More Fish

Jason Straziuso January 13, 2010
In a weird twist of fate, Somali pirates have helped Kenya’s fishing improve. The threat posed by these pirates in the western Indian Ocean has discouraged foreign vessels from fishing in the region. This sudden drop in fishing has allowed fish stocks to replenish – especially varieties that had all but disappeared such as red snapper and barracuda – providing Kenyan fisherman with better catches...

Terrorism’s New Avatars – Part II

Gabriel Weimann January 12, 2010
Amid the clamor surrounding intelligence failures and opening of new fronts in counter-terrorism effort, a new link has come to light – the open space of the Internet. Conventional wisdom holds that the war in Afghanistan weakened Al Qaeda and eroded its operational efficiency. Terrorism expert Gabriel Weimann believes this to be far from the truth. Social networking sites, online chat rooms,...

Terrorism’s New Avatars – Part I

Bruce Riedel January 7, 2010
The foiled bombing of Northwest flight 253 brings to light the global nature of terrorist expansion. Many would have thought it unlikely that ill-governed and little-considered Yemen would be the source of an attack on the United States. But as regional expert Bruce Riedel relates, Yemen has long been a chaotic country governed weakly or by outsiders – a perfect breeding ground for terrorist...

Liberals Losing the Battle?

Shahid Kardar December 11, 2009
Liberals and moderates in Pakistan are becoming a minority. In a recent poll, 86 percent of the respondents believed that religion should have some role in politics. Such a statistic is not surprising when moderate and civilian governments are unable to provide Pakistanis with a decent education, good governance, or basic health services. Is it any wonder, then, that so many gravitate to madrasas...