The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has undergone monumental changes for the better in the last few years. The security forces set the pace by carrying out relentless counter-terrorist operations, which succeeded with the support of the local populace and government, and resulted in near decimation of the terror machinery in the region. T he improved c...
After failing to block Turkey’s purchase of the advanced S-400 Russian air defense system, Washington diplomacy in recent months appeared to have managed to “flip” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to support of US interests in several critical countries from Libya to Armenia to Ukraine, even Afghanistan. With the Turkish economy on the brink of catastr...
While the Joe Biden administration has confirmed a US withdrawal from Afghanistan with or without a political settlement between Kabul and the Taliban, the story that has started to unfold following Biden’s announcement shows that withdrawal isn’t after all going to be a straightforward pull out of all military resources currently deployed and operating in A...
What makes the Middle East difficult to understand is that it comprises a multitude of actors with different logics who, depending on the circumstances, make or break alliances. We often think we know the region politically, who our friends and enemies are. But when we return to the same place years later, the landscape has changed dramatically: some of our ...
Against the background of a possible return of the United States to a “nuclear deal” with Iran, Tel Aviv has recently demonstrably intensified the actions of its intelligence services to undermine Tehran’s nuclear program and damage not only this industry, but the Islamic Republic as a whole. And at the same time, Israeli officials make no secret of their di...
Ötzi man is in news again. (Ötzi was the oldest well-preserved remains of a man found on the highs of Alps in 2017, and dated at around 3300 BCE Wikipedia article). (Disclaimer: this article is not about the migration of Ötzi man).
After a recent discovery of the presence of the Indian-origin H.pylori bacterium in his stomach, establishing his ancestral...
Any article on what has just happened in Jordan is now censored by order of the Royal Palace. It will therefore be impossible to find explanations about the coup d’état that Prince Hamza, half-brother of King Abdullah, was preparing. The most we know is that on April 3, 2021, the Chief of Staff, General Youssef Huneiti, came to politely inform Prince Hamz...
The US has been fighting two wars: with Ukraine against Russia, and with Russia against Climate. Both are very costly, both bring no profit to Americans, both are entirely unnecessary, but both are essential for the Biden regime at this time, as the Covid pandemic runs out of steam. How will matters proceed? The Ukrainian war may have been postponed. Rus...
The Ukrainian population is divided between a part of European culture and another of Russian culture. This singularity offers Washington a playground against Moscow. For several weeks now, the drums have been beating, sounding war. But none of the allies want to die for Kiev or sacrifice themselves to Russia.
1] The Anglo-Saxons have a hereditary enemy: th...
The question of what constitutes ‘thinking’ overlaps the issues of MIND/BRAIN. Defining, delineating and explicating self-awareness, rationality and logic has been a perplexing challenge since time immemorial. ‘‘Discovery’ of the subconscious has enormously complicated these tasks. Advances in neurology add a new dimension to the discourse. A finitude of tim...
Back in the days when the New York Review of Books took seriously its reputation as the stellar journal of English-reading intellectuals, the editors upon occasion published long, prolix essays on the recondite topic of the Mind-Brain relationship. I recall John Searle of Berkeley as one of the protagonists. Through dint of supreme effort and disciplined con...
The press agencies have widely circulated images of the EU/Turkey summit in Ankara on April 6, 2021. It shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan receiving European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. There are only two chairs for three. Mrs. von der Leyen, after standing for a while, sits down on a sof...
For the last 4 years, Democrat leaders have blamed Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 elections. Now the Democrats - who control all three branches of government - have the power to reset US foreign policy and take a more hostile approach to Moscow. But will they? At present, there are roughly 40,000 US-NATO troops massed along the Russian border...
The 11th Corps Commander-level meeting between India and China was held on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo border point in Ladakh on April 9, 2021. The meeting was said to have lasted for 13 hours. Unlike the 19th round meeting held in February, no joint statement was issued at the end of the meeting. The statements issued separately by the two countrie...
Sports governance worldwide has had the legs knocked out from under it. Yet, national and international sports administrators are slow in realizing the magnitude of what has hit them. Tectonic plates underlying sports’ guiding principle that sports and politics are unrelated have shifted, driven by a struggle against racism and a quest for human rights and s...
In an unfortunate incident in Kashmir on April 9, 2021 terrorists shot dead a Territorial Army (TA) soldier, Havaldar Mohammad Saleem Akhoon, near his home in Goriwan, Bijbehara, Anantnag. Akhoon belonged to 162 Infantry Battalion (TA) and had been granted leave from March 22 for 40 days. The brutal murder of the innocent soldier was in line with a well-cr...
It is common knowledge that Russia for a long time now has been a proponent of the idea of Eurasian integration, and the project that is being implemented the most energetically on the continent is the Chinese transportation infrastructure and economic initiative dubbed One Belt, One Road (OBOR). OBOR is supposed to unite as many states as possible into a...
With China and Iran signing a multi-billion dollar deal for the next 25 years, there remains little gainsaying that the former is going to increase its footprint in West Asia/Middle East in a way that once was thought to be unimaginable for reasons that included China’s own economic policies and West Asia’s too close ties with the West to allow for any playe...
For an entire week, the giant container ship Ever Given blocked one of the most important waterways in world trade between the East and West: the Suez Canal. This incident not only caused a serious disruption along the transport route, where about 400 ships backed up due to the accident, but also caused serious financial losses to many, which could amount to...
The change of the ruling elite in the White House has prompted many countries in the East, including Egypt and Turkey, to revise their foreign policies to better adapt to this new reality. After seven years of tensions, Ankara and Egypt are now sending signals that they are prepared to seek rapprochement. This is largely the result of a growing consensus tha...