New Lessons Lead to New War Plans for India and Pakistan
India believes it won the hostilities which followed the Pulwama attack in February 2019. According to New Delhi the attack on Balakot not only punished […] More
Pakistan
Mastermind of 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks Arrested
Bottom Line Up Front Pakistani authorities have arrested Hafiz Saeed, founder of the terrorist group LeT and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Pakistan […] More
How Close Did India and Pakistan Come to War?
It needs no more than 4 bad decisions for India and Pakistan to go to war; and 5 for that war to go nuclear. So […] More
How Economic & Political Tensions Impact the Sino-Pakistani Relationship
Bottom-Line Up Front Sino-Pakistani relations are deepening on all fronts, creating a new geopolitical reality on the Indian subcontinent. Sino-Pakistani relations have solidified through […] More
The Dangerous Escalation Dynamics of Terrorism
Bottom Line Up Front While Pakistan relies on terrorists as proxies, it remains unclear exactly how much control the military and intelligence services have […] More
Approaching a Dangerous Precipice in South Asia
Bottom Line Up Front On February 18, Pakistan-based militants killed four Indian soldiers during a raid in Kashmir, just days after 40 Indian soldiers […] More
Civilian Casualties and the Struggle for Transparency
Bottom Line Up Front A partially declassified study of U.S. military operations demonstrates the difficulty in accurately counting and mitigating civilian casualties. Disparities exist […] More
Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent: The Nucleus of Jihad in South Asia
Bottom Line Up Front The U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will give terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) more room to […] More
Cipher Brief Analysis: The Pakistan Problem
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan recently returned from China without the concrete funding assurances that he was seeking in order to keep his country from […] More
Implications of a Chinese-Saudi-Pakistani Axis in South Asia
Bottom Line Up Front: Islamabad has invited Saudi Arabia to join China as a partner in Beijing’s extensive infrastructure initiative throughout Pakistan. The China-Pakistan Economic […] More
Relations between Washington and Islamabad? It’s Complicated
Pakistan sits at a critical crossroads of U.S. Counterterrorism efforts, and geo-political strategy with China. Pakistan has elected a former cricket player, Imran Khan, as […] More
Pakistan Reflects on Nuclear Achievement in Run Up to Election
Bottom Line: Pakistani citizens are heading to the polls next month in a public display of democracy and choice. Yet, with Pakistan’s military continuing to […] More
Has Pakistan Truly Tamed its Tribal Frontier?
Maligned as a bastion of extremism and a top terrorist safe haven, Pakistan’s Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), along the country’s northwestern border with Afghanistan, […] More
China Pulls Pakistan Further into its Economic Orbit
Bottom Line: China’s “One Belt, One Road” economic strategy, aimed at developing regional trades routes connecting East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Europe, has […] More
Pakistan Is Feeling US Pressure. Now What?
After a short trip to Pakistan last week, I return to Washington convinced that the Trump administration’s new coercive approach toward Islamabad is working, at […] More
US Demands Pakistan Arrest “Hit List” of Top Haqqani & Taliban Leaders
The Trump administration has given Pakistan a new “hit list” of nearly a dozen top militants to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, […] More
Don’t Let China Start Calling the Shots in Pakistan
The vast size of the proposed China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has players on all sides struggling to calculate the pros and cons for their […] More
Getting the Most Out of Pakistan
The Trump administration’s decision to suspend security assistance to the Pakistani military pending “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network represents an […] More