THE US is having second thoughts about the Washington Consensus it had evolved in the 1990s. At that time, the Cold War with the Soviet Union had just ended, and the world had moved into the phase of globalisation and interdependence. It seemed then that the Western governance model of liberal democracy and market economies […]

RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has won a third presidential term. His dominance of the Turkish political scene for over two decades has been marked both by enviable successes and trying challenges. He shot into prominence when he was elected mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. As mayor, he introduced high standards of urban good governance […]

RUSSIA’S ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine, launched on Feb 24, 2022, is morphing into a long, drawn-out war. Initially, Russia made substantial territorial gains, but the Ukrainians fought back and liberated several regions of their country. Nearly a year and a half later, the war is deadlocked. There are no prospects of either side securing […]

IN the heart of Vienna lies a flourishing Pakistani restaurant that caters to thousands of tourists and locals. The owner has credited much of the restaurant’s success to an enabling business environment. For instance, while his restaurant is regularly and rigorously inspected by government officials, there is no expectation of or demand for bribes. One […]

NARENDRA Modi has come a long way from the time he was denied a US visa for his role in the Gujarat pogrom. Times have changed. He is now the prime minister of a country that the US wants to build as a counterweight to rising China. The US has honoured him, with his state […]

ASIA-PACIFIC has been the primary venue for the US-China strategic competition. However, the competition is now spilling into other regions too, including the Middle East, where the US is gradually losing its influence. In order to bolster its standing in the Middle East, the US facilitated the process of normalisation of ties between Israel and […]

SPEAKING to the First Constituent Assembly in 1947, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah outlined several duties for the government of Pakistan: maintain law and order, root out corruption, act against black marketeering, and not allow nepotism. Jinnah advised inclusive governments based on the rule of law, merit-based governance, religious freedom and equality of all citizens. Seven […]

THE world’s first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945, killing over 100,000 residents. The second bomb followed three days later, and killed nearly 80,000 in Nagasaki. The scale of destruction was so vast, so indiscriminate that no country — not even the US, which had dropped the two bombs — ever […]

POST-dinner conversations in most urban middle-class households start these days with commentaries on the unstable politics and abysmal economic situation of Pakistan and end with the concern about the youth exodus from Pakistan to the seemingly greener pastures of North America, Europe, Australia and the Gulf. However, before drawing any conclusions, it would be important […]

JARANWALA, a small town near Lahore, has shot into prominence, but for the wrong reasons. What happened there on Aug 16, 2023 represents another low in our history of communal intolerance, with local community leaders and law-enforcement authorities appearing totally helpless in preventing the mob from targeting dozens of Christian families, their houses and churches. […]