South East Asia

Western powers appear to be preparing for the fall of Kabul, after the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada all announced fresh troop deployments to help evacuate citizens and other residents of the Afghan capital on Thursday. The United States will send 3,000 troops to secure Kabul’s international airport and …

The situation in Afghanistan—and with it the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship—is likely to worsen in the short term. The prospect of a prolonged civil war or full Taliban takeover now looms large as hopes of a negotiated settlement recede. Whatever the outcome, the countries’ bilateral relationship will continue to be shaped by …

This is Part-1 of a two-part article. This part shows how peace and tranquility at LAC is sought to be restored, in spite of a rare clash at Galwan last year. LAC was a rare border where not a single shot was fired, and none killed, in over four decades …

The ongoing withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is transforming diplomatic and security dynamics in Central Asia, creating opportunities for Russia and China to enhance their engagement with increasingly anxious governments in the region. The resurgence of the Taliban that began in the spring—and their takeover of large swaths of …

The Pentagon is preparing for a possible evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan amid fears that the Taliban may overrun the compound in the coming days. As the Islamic terrorist organization makes significant gains, capturing ten provincial capitals across the country, the State Department will reduce embassy staff …

Alarm is growing at the prospect of the Taliban unseating the Kabul government, but that outcome is just one of three scenarios for Afghanistan’s future amid mounting military uncertainty and an unfolding human tragedy. There is no question that momentum is with the Taliban, which have taken more territory in …

In 1947, George F Keenan, an American Foreign Service officer, formulated the policy of ‘containment’. The continuity that this policy represented may be appreciated by its longevity. It was the foundation of US strategy during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the keystone of their foreign policy. It …

China has gone through major political transformations over the past decade, with the rise and consolidation of Xi Jinping’s power being a key driver. The change in leadership has been accompanied by power centralisation, governance changes, anti-corruption drives, and growing ethnic tension. This decade coincided with China’s rise in the …

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly has dismissed Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai from his post, after the ninth provincial capital fell to the Taliban early on Wednesday morning. The Taliban have captured more than a quarter of the country’s provincial capitals in less than a week. …

Trump’s adoption of a realistic relationship with China successfully slowed any CCP plans for military expansion in the South and East China Seas. What ended any possibility of a warming trend in US-China diplomatic ties was Beijing’s repeated lies that there was no human-to-human transmissibility of its Wuhan virus. Soon, …