South East Asia

Pakistan’s Taliban movement, led by its most vicious and largest group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and apparently buoyed by the recent triumph of their ethnic Pashtun cousins in Afghanistan, is revitalizing its strategy either for regional autonomy or to overthrow Pakistan’s government and replace it with an Islamic Emirate of Pakistan …

When President Donald Trump lost the 2020 US presidential election to democratic candidate Joe Biden, many leaders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) saw an ominous warning that democracy may again take center stage in US foreign policy, with autocrats trying to consolidate power in their hands.

After alleged images of the J-10C fighter jet with the marking of the Pakistan Air Force recently emerged on social media and were widely circulated by media outlets, Chinese analysts on Sunday lauded the latest defense cooperation between China and Pakistan, saying that the move yields great significance to both …

The fragile geopolitical nature of the Balkans has allowed Russia to consistently undermine Western integration attempts in the region. While foreign interference is nothing new in Europe’s underbelly, it has historically been limited to regional powers and the U.S. But China’s recent collaboration with Russia in supporting ethnic separatism in …

With corruption playing a significant role in the outcome of recent security force assistance missions, a different approach to tackling the problem is needed. An issue that haunts more or less all security force assistance missions to various degrees is widespread and large-scale corruption in host institutions. Such corruption can …

Despite the optics of a Sino-Russian presidential summit at a time of heightened tensions with the West, the trust upon which their bilateral relationship is built remains shaky. President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin held a much-vaunted meeting in Beijing on 4 February, on the cusp of the Winter …

On January 21, 2022, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach attended a talk in New Delhi, India, organized by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. Schönbach was speaking as the chief of Germany’s navy during his visit to the institute. “What he really wants is respect,” Schönbach said, referring …

A broader maritime security approach is welcome but can the interests of the shipping industry and coastal states align? For almost two decades, maritime security in the Western Indian Ocean was associated with fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia. These initiatives now need to be reformed as piracy has …

It sounds like something that came out of a sci-fi movie, but Brain control weapons are slowly coming to life through Chinese research and the development of biotechnology that can disorient enemies and make them easier to subdue. These types of weapons can potentially change the way we traditionally think …

Xi Jinping, China’s mighty-looking leader, has an “enormous array of domestic enemies.” — Gregory Copley, president of the International Strategic Studies Association and editor-in-chief of Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, to Gatestone Institute, February 2022. Xi created that opposition. After becoming China’s ruler at the end of 2012, he …