Salman Taseer in Kafka's Pakistan
Express Tribune - January 4, 2012
Kafka's literary canvass was one where utter absurdity was a fact of life. Perhaps Kafka was a proto-Pakistani. Read More.
Pakistan's Strategic Dependence
Express Tribune - December 11, 2011
Pakistani dependence on the US will remain as long as the country is tied to a paradigm of confrontation with India. Read More.
Old Sherry in a New Bottle?
The News International - November 24, 2011
Memogate represents a dangerous evolution by the military in playing a more subtle and complex political game. If that is true, then the final act is yet to play out. Read More.
Yes we Khan, but should we?
Express Tribune - November 17, 2011
Is Imran Khan the harbinger of the Pakistani Spring? Or is it politics as usual? Read More. 
Arab Spring, Qaddafi's fall
Express Tribune - August 27, 2011
Libya represents a watershed in the Arab Spring, in that it is the only Arab country where the ruling regime is truly shattering. Read More. 
Blood in the streets in Syria
Express Tribune - August 12, 2011
Syria’s ethnic politics make it a country where hopes for quick and peaceful change come up against the reality of underlying power structures. Read More. 
An imitation of freedom
Walkley Magazine - July 12, 2011
The media in Pakistan is free only so long as it toes the establishment line. Click here for full article (link opens as .pdf file)
Media Freedom and Strategic Doctrine
Express Tribune - June 2, 2011
Journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad's murder shows how "media propaganda" is used in Pakistan to manage rather than inform public opinion. Read More. 
Afghanistan After bin Laden
The Mark - May 13, 2011, & Asia Times - May 20, 2011
With Osama bin Laden dead, the Afghanistan war moves into its end game. Read More. 
The End of an Ugly Friendship?
The Mark - May 4, 2011
In their fight against terrorism, the US and Pakistan never really had much in common. Read More. 
In Support of the Libyan No-Fly Zone
Express Tribune - April 20, 2011, & the Transnational Institute, April, 2011
To oppose the UN-mandated intervention in Libya is to accept mass killing in Benghazi, Tobruk and other rebel held towns as an acceptable moral price for impeccable self-righteousness. Read More.  
Democracy and the Middle East
Express Tribune - March 22, 2011
While the world focuses on Libya, the stakes in Bahrain could not be higher. Read More.
Middle East Contagion
Express Tribune - February 28, 2011
The regime in Libya is headed towards collapse. Yet different political and sectarian dynamics in Bahrain mean that its regime will survive with little change. Read More. 
Military Rule or People's Power?
Express Tribune - February 8, 2011
A danger for Egypt's nascent revolution is that many may see Mubarak's ouster as enough. But Egypt's real shackles are its military-backed autocratic system; "Mubarakism" as opposed to Mubarak. Read More.
Will Egypt Crack? 
Express Tribune - January 29, 2011
Tunisia signaled that it is possible to bring down a seemingly impervious Arab autocracy through a popular movement. Egypt will be the battleground where this notion will be seriously tested. Read More. 
Middle East on the March
Express Tribune - January 24, 2011
Tunisia shows how far autocratic Arab governments have lost touch with their people and, most importantly, that it is possible to change the untenable status quo. Read More. 
What next for Barack Obama?
Express Tribune - November 14, 2010
Democratic losses in the midterm elections will shift Obama's focus to international affairs. But Obama faces a growing constraint that his predecessors did not: the relative decline of of American global power. Read More. 
Balancing Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan
Express Tribune - November 7, 2010
Pakistan and Iran must both look to a regionally guaranteed stability as the occupation in Afghanistan ends. Read More. 
Embedded with the Military
Express Tribune - October 2, 2010
Journalists must remain critical of becoming embedded even in the context of flood relief, and in the words of Israeli/Gazan scribe Amira Hass, must always, "monitor the centres of power." Read More. 
Pakistan's Wages of Sin
The Mark - August 23, 2010
One of the reasons the response to the floods in Pakistan has been so half-hearted is the perception of the country as a hub for terrorism. Read More. 
After Wikileaks, business as usual
Express Tribune - August 4, 2010
The classified documents released by Wikileaks popularize an open secret: the links between the Taliban and Pakistan's ISI. Read More.
The Divergence of America and Israel
Foreign Policy in Focus - July 12, 2010
American support for Israel stems not from historical guilt, well-heeled lobbies or other (often anti-Semitic) conspiracies, but from a fundamental alignment of interests. Such an alignment existed since the 1960s to the end of the Cold War. It does not any longer. Read More.
A New Middle East Balance of power
The Mark - June 15, 2010
Israel is becoming less integral to U.S. influence in the region as Turkey becomes more important. Read More. 
Terrorism: The Nuclear Summit's Straw Man
Asia Times - April 15, 2010
For most of the world - particularly the Middle East and South Asia - inter-state conflict presents a much greater threat of nuclear annihilation than terrorism. This week's security summit deflects the more salient problem of disarmament, setting up a straw man in its place. This is because the atomic arsenals of the US's allies maintain a strategic balance that is favorable to Washington. Read More. 
Strategic Depth at the heart of Taliban Arrests
Asia Times - March 24, 2010
When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Pakistan achieved ''strategic depth'', the elusive goal of a pliant buffer between India and Russia. The arrests of top Taliban leaders who were negotiating a settlement shows that Pakistan is determined to assert its influence and carve out a settlement that preserves the strategic imperative that Afghanistan represents. Read More.