Strategic Paradigms by Ehsan Ahrari

As much as the world’s attention is focused on the loss of the United States’ AAA rating and the related long-term consequences for its global dominance, the PRC seems to be taking full advantage of the politics of symbolism related to its military modernization.  Its decision to show off its first aircraft carrier is one such [...]

Watching President Barack Obama’s performance during the budget impasse last week was appalling.  He acted like he was not presiding over the fight for the middle class, the poor average American voters, a large number of whom voted for him.  The closest he came to taking a stand in that debate was when he talked [...]

Former Secretary of State Collin Powell famously told President George W. Bush before he invaded Iraq, if you send troops to that country “you are going to own it.”  That is otherwise known as the “the Pottery Barn rule,” “You break it, you own it.”  Now, the United States “owns” Iraq as well as Afghanistan. [...]

The current shape of the Afghan conflict is such that either the United States or the Taliban has to be decisively defeated. No other outcome is likely become a reality anytime soon.

The day before Leon Panetta’s confirmation hearing as Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ successor, President Barack Obama said during a television interview that his administration has won a “big chunk of strategic objectives” in Afghanistan.  He then proceeded to say, “By us killing Osama Bin Laden, getting al Qaeda back on its heels, stabilizing much of [...]

A recent academic study documented what the specialists on counterterrorism have known all along: poverty is not breeding extremism in that country. But tell that to the U.S. policymakers, who are convinced that it does. Pakistan’s problem is that it might be the only country where extremism has systematically introduced from the top since the [...]

One bloody rule of South Asian strategic affairs—and there are many more such rules—is that when your enemy is down make sure that you start kicking it hard because it will the same when its turn comes. Pakistan is down right now, its ISI is coming under frontal attack from all sides, including the United [...]

Presented below are my unsolicited critiques of two essays on the strategic affairs of India and Pakistan, for your reading. Sunil Dasgupta and Stephen P. Cohen, “Is India Ending Its Strategic Restraint Doctrine?” and C. Christina Faire, “Under the Shrinking U.S. Security Umbrella: India’s End Game in Afghanistan?”

Reading the headlines on Pakistan these days, it seems there is no end to the “humiliation” of that country. It was humiliated when Usama Bin Laden was found to be living in Abbottabad, only a half-mile from Pakistan’s military academy. The government claimed that it was unaware of the world’s most wanted terrorist’s presence. Its [...]

President Barack Obama’s election to the White House created euphoria in the world of Islam regarding the prospects for change associated with his presidency, when he gave his highly anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June 2009. Today, however, his presidency has become the epitome of attempting to lead from behind and [...]