Year: 2014

Ahmed Rashid There was no warning of the bombings in London. The British intelligence service MI5 did not pick up any proverbial chatter, as usually talkative terrorists discuss the last...

Ahmed Rashid   IN AFGHANISTAN: a war going in the wrong direction, a fatally flawed election, reconstruction at a standstill and a growing political vacuum that the Taliban is filling...

Ahmed Rashid   Nawaz Sharif is not part of the American script for the war on terror and the future of Pakistan, written by mandarins in the US State Department....

Ahmed Rashid Visits from three senior U.S. officials in three weeks indicate troubles in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. Washington has failed to deliver on the regional strategy it promised this spring,...

Francis Fukuyama I am probably the only person in the United States who actually likes the fact that President Obama set an 18 month timetable for the beginning of a...

Sergei Blagov  Russia wants to turn a newly minted Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan into its major vehicle for post-Soviet economic integration in Central Eurasia. Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed...

Ahmed Rashid   Switch on any of the dozens of satellite news channels now available in Pakistan.   You will be bombarded with talk show hosts who are mostly obsessed...

Sean Maroney    Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission says it has canceled the presidential runoff, originally scheduled for this Saturday. The announcement came a day after President Hamid Karzai's challenger, former foreign...

The military said that the explosion in Bajaur was caused by a vehicle packed with explosives [AFP]   Pakistan's military has denied that a US drone attack was behind the deaths of as...

Karzai agreed to take part in a second and decisive round of voting after talks with US officials [AFP]   The senior US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan has said...

Deirdre Tynan   The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is undergoing a metamorphosis that could transform the Islamic militant group into a far more dynamic foe for Central Asian governments, as...

Shahin Abbasov   On the eve of the October 10 signing of protocols for reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia, Azerbaijani officials have muted expectations that a rapprochement between Yerevan and Ankara...

Alexei Bayer The footage from the sprawling Cherkizovsky Market that inundated Russian television after the authorities shut it down makes hair-raising viewing. But it is also part of a distressing...

Deirdre Tynan   A US Defense Department Internet initiative is stoking a debate among experts about whether the Pentagon is overreaching.   The $10.1 million Trans Regional Web Initiative (TRWI) aims...

Deirdre Tynan   The US military is preparing for a worst-case scenario in Central Asia. The Pentagon is presently developing plans covering the potential deployment of elite Special Forces to Central...