For too long, many presumed experts have attempted to solve the problem of radical Islam by dissecting religious texts or recommending the support of so-called “moderate” Islamic factions. It is a fool’s errand. The problem with radical Islam, like other forms of political extremism, is that it is hegemonistic and…
During his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, newly-elected Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan invited the kingdom to become the third major partner in the Beijing-funded, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). If accepted, it would be a strategic game-changer. BRI, China’s blueprint for global domination,…
Carl von Clausewitz, 19th century military theorist, stressed the importance of knowing your enemy: “The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish … the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying…
For many, it was a stunning development. China will build a brigade-size military training facility in the strategic Wakhan Corridor, the land bridge between Tajikistan and Pakistan, which is located in Afghanistan’s northeast Badakhshan province and borders China. Although Beijing denied the claim that hundreds of Chinese soldiers will be deployed to…
In the Autumn of 2001, a small group of CIA operatives and Special Forces teams working with the Afghan Northern Alliance and supported by massive U.S. airpower overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan. At that time, the Taliban and its infrastructure were completely exposed in Afghanistan, and its sponsor, Pakistan,…
In the last few years, Russia and China have increased political, economic and military cooperation, as well as conducting joint diplomatic offensives against American interests, for example, in Afghanistan. No doubt the steps taken against Russia by the Obama Administration and the personal animus that developed between the then U.S. president and…
The U.S. Department of Defense Department just submitted to Congress its semiannual, June 2018 report titled “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.” The take-home message, like every such report for at least the last 10 years, remained the reassuring “progress is being made.” It is the contemporary equivalent to the Vietnam War…
According to a recent report, Chinese investment in Africa could create national economies entirely dependent on China. Although infrastructure projects can create jobs, provide an opportunity for skills development and the transfer of new technologies, Chinese loans amounting to more than $86 billion bring dangerously high levels of debt that can prove unsustainable…
In its quest for global domination, China is making effective use of the four instruments of national power: diplomatic, informational, military and economic. To explain Beijing’s thinking, it is useful to take them in reverse order. Economic: The foundation of and the starting point for China’s roadmap to supremacy is…
Overshadowed in the U.S. media by the Singapore meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, held in Qingdoa, China on June 9–10, may have far greater strategic significance. Established in 2001, the SCO is a Eurasian political, economic,…
On August 21, 2017, President Donald Trump presented his administration’s Strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia, which rests on three pillars: “First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made — especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women…