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The reality is that Putin did his homework many years ago when things took a real turn in relations with the West. The Russian economy has some insulation against Western sanctions - if I remember correctly, it has around $668 billion in reserves and significant gold holdings too. Remain to be...

Iraq has multiple factions and ethnicities within it: Kurds, Sunnis, and Shias (the majority). The Shias are analogous to the Pashtuns in Afghanistan, as they are the biggest group and dominate the country. Iran has controlled Iraq since the withdrawal of American forces through Shia militias...

A different lala land to the one where you believe Pakistan could sustain two-front hostility. Yes, countries protect their interests but that doesn't mean that them doing so doesn't create resentment in native populations, ergo Muqtada al Sadr, anti-Americanism in Pakistan, etc

Important to flag this in the thread again. Members are letting their emotions get ahead of themselves and not analyzing things properly. There are various factions within the Taliban, some more pro/dependent on Pakistan and its patronage, some less. The Haqqanis have always been closer to...

Pakistan should use Afghanistan's isolation and economic vulnerability to fence what remains of the border. At worst, I would be happy to see us fence slightly (a few KM) inside our own territory. Then work on mining the border and continually improving it. Pakistan should have a permanently...

China's manufacturing ability is the 8th wonder of the world. I remember seeing it put up COVID hospitals in record time and being just astonished at the speed of it all. Central planning works.

Sadly nobody - and I mean nobody - has ideology in Pakistani politics. It's all managerialism of one stripe or another. Such is the shame.

Iran is incapable of directly hitting the US and its meek response of firing a couple of ballistic missiles at empty hangars is indicative of that. Credit where it is due - Trump called Iran's bluff in assassinating Soleimani. The threat of direct American intervention and devastation of the...

Political 'spinning' and media management are nothing out of the ordinary. What is sinister here, however, is how effectively one of the parties is managing a major private broadcaster and seemingly buying off journalists with gifts. One needs only to think what kind of conversations are...

Pakistan's misfortune lies in its inheritors after Jinnah's passing being the same feudal rent-seekers that propped up the Raj. Jinnah was unable to really establish a political class or tendency of his effectively beyond his own personal leadership after independence. The few bright minds that...

The depletion of Sui Gas Fields was something that was foreseeable in the very long-term yet nothing was done to avert the obvious disaster on the horizon. To give credit where it is at least due, BB did sign a treaty in the 1990s with one of the Central Asian States for a pipeline but the...

Overseas Pakistanis are seen as some sort of silver bullet for the country - we support many others with remittances, help balance the current account books, and are expected to be first-line investors in reviving the country's economy. Yet, when it comes to our rights there is nothing. Neither...

India has no appetite for a war its knows will only go one way.

Is there a neighbor they haven't engaged in hostility with yet? On the one hand they are getting the begging bowl out asking the entire world for assistance but on the other act like a group of local ruffians. We've got years more of this to come.

Pakistan's defence future lies in integration with China. In the longer term, a Chinese jet, whatever its limitations compared to Western counterparts may be, will be better from that perspective. A future acquisition of a Fifth Gen fighter will likely be a Chinese one and anything coming out of...

Seemingly inevitable due to economic pressures on the country together with the reluctance of the US to sell any other systems and to subject them to stringent conditions even if they did. Though I think I'll wait for a better source for now - when it comes to public pronouncements in Pakistani...

I can post pictures of some really great resorts in third world countries, such as say the Congo, but that doesn't mean the rest of the country is as developed.

The demographic timebomb is something China shares with a lot of other developed countries (though not as much with the US which doesn't have as much of a problem) and is probably one of the biggest problems we have globally at the moment. Unless we accept more generous migratory patterns from...

There are though a lot of rumours about whether or not the Russians have activated/permitted the Syrians to use them. That and the fact that Israel has access to much more sophisticated military hardware (including EW) than Pakistan. I wouldn't write off the addition of the S-400s so easily.

Pakistan already struggles enough with the tribal district due to it being so different to the rest of the country (including the rest of KPK) because of the very nature of it being a tribal society. I don't think it could cope with a different country being added onto it, especially one that is...