Arun Anand examines how Chinese investment, infrastructure and security cooperation are reshaping Central Asia — and asks what the region may be trading away as Beijing’s influence deepens.
As Xi Jinping arrives in Washington, China’s ability to support partners under pressure while preserving access to their adversaries gives Beijing leverage across the Gulf, South Asia, Europe and the wider global order.
The removal of Macklemore from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour is not simply a booking dispute. It is a bracing test of whether an artist may still possess a conscience when powerful men, wealthy venue owners and political pressure insist that conscience be checked at the door.
Whose side are they on?
When strategic ambition meets economic fragility
Murtaza Shibli examines Pakistan’s expulsion of Afghan medical students as a measure of the country’s treatment of Afghan youth, refugees and the consequences of its Afghanistan policy.
Pakistan's military governments often posted stronger headline growth than elected administrations. But the official record shows that the booms were repeatedly tied to exceptional external inflows, geopolitical patronage, debt restructuring and inherited capacity - while the country's deepest economic weaknesses survived. The larger cost was institutional: a political economy in which military supremacy, whether direct or exercised through civilian governments under tutelage, blurred accountability and shortened the horizon for reform.
An argument for applying one moral standard to Western and non-Western governments, movements and individuals.
With a new drama returning the case to the spotlight, Giovanni Ulleri argues that the language used to frame it must keep pace with contested science and more careful journalism.
A commentary arguing that reports of Imran Khan’s image being removed from an APPNA convention poster reflect a wider failure of moral courage as concerns grow over his detention, health and family access.
After Mark Carney’s warning that middle powers can no longer rely on old security assumptions, Europe is rearming at historic speed — and increasingly keeping that defence spending inside Europe.
After a cycle of attacks, crackdowns and broken political promises, this opinion piece argues that lasting peace in Balochistan cannot be built on coercion, resource extraction or the denial of Baloch political identity.
A data-led examination of how anti-immigration rhetoric often collapses very different forms of migration into a single political narrative, despite the NHS’s deep reliance on overseas-trained and international doctors.
Dr Yvonne Ridley reveals why the silent scream of a Congolese superfan connects a multi-billion-dollar sports scandal directly to the ultimate sacrifice of Pakistan’s bravest UN peacekeepers.
Once regarded as one of the world’s most durable water-sharing agreements, the Indus Waters Treaty is now at the centre of a growing India-Pakistan dispute shaped by security concerns, political pressure, climate stress and the weaponisation of strategic resources.
The killing of seven-year-old Muntaha Zahra has reopened Pakistan’s deepest wound: a child protection crisis sustained by institutional failure, social silence, police impunity, and a justice system that continues to fail the most vulnerable.
Exclusive Investigation by Parrhesia Whistleblowers Desk
Pakistan’s sudden turn toward the Indus Valley Civilization reflects more than a cultural rediscovery; it signals a deeper search for legitimacy as old ideological narratives lose their power at home and abroad.
Pakistan’s judicial overreach in Rawalpindi risks damaging the country’s institutions, international credibility and rule-of-law reputation.
A young Shia militant from Pakistan’s Kurram region arrives in Qom at the invitation of the IRGC, entering a wider transnational network shaped by sectarian violence, regional proxy politics and the militarisation of Shia identity.
The latest confrontation between the United States and Iran has reignited one of the defining geopolitical questions of our era: can overwhelming military power deliver political victory?
The rising global debate over banning social media for minors.
Against a larger Russian army, Ukraine has turned drones, autonomy and battlefield innovation into a new kind of strategic depth — one that is reshaping the war and challenging old assumptions about power.
Pakistan’s long pursuit of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan has ended in strategic blowback, as a Taliban-led Kabul asserts its own nationalism and turns to Russia, India and China to escape Islamabad’s shadow.
