Ahmed Rashid on the flood disaster in Pakistan

summary: Because the pakistani government has lost ground in flood hit provinces KP and Balochistan, and the international relief response has not yet met minimum requirements, it is likely that extremism will increase rapidly in the area. That will not only affect the war in Afghanistan, as the Pakistan Army is not capable of defending the [...]

SufiLore #7 – Development Assistance and Aid in Pakistan

The presentation held in Vienna as a Talaash discussion round can be downloaded as a Powerpoint here (.ppt, 9.5 MB) in short form, or as JPG slides for the original slides (.jpeg, 2.4 MB) (I wasn't able to downsize the original presentation to a convenient size).

Events, dear boy! Events.

As part of my National Security Lecture I just finished a very good paper by Jolyon Howorth (published in Christopher Hill & Michael Smith (eds.), The International Relations of the European Union, Oxford University Press, 2004) on the EU's defence and security outlook. While Germany is struggling with it's deployment of troops in Afghanistan, Austria is buying planes while not knowing what to use them for and discussing a new law adressed for Austrians who trained in terror camps one wonders where the plans of the EU about it's multilateral national security looks like.

SufiLore #6 – Pakistan’s water

I have earlier linked to a very good report on water issues in Pakistan here. Following are some links to recently observed water issues in the country.

Selling democracy – what’s our tactic?

When Musharraf was in power, the West had it’s major evil in Pakistan: it’s not a democracy. Now having a, in the West’s eyes, democratic government in place we are back to dealing with the country through the Army and Secret Service rather than the elected representatives. What has the West done for a democratic Pakistan? Cheered at a brick-throwing lawyers movement? Shoved in a government that so far has shown little will to bring in the original constitution?

Featured Post

Article By Yasir Hussain on February 27, 2010

The capture of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah militant group, was nabbed in Iran on 23rd Feb in a dramatic fashion. His post-arrest statement and a photo allegedly showing him at a US base in Afghanistan just 24 hours before his arrest has sparked an interest debate on US role with Jundallah under Obama’s administration. Although Pentagon spokesman [...]

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Asides

• Kalakawa (Black Crow in Urdu) blog has an interesting view of the countries and celebrities. Who who'd have thought that Paris Hilton is actually an acronym for Afghanistan.. #
• An alleged spy pigeon has been held in Indian Punjab. Excuse me, what? #
• Declan Walsh on Afghanistan war logs leak and the credibility of its accusations on the role of ISI. #
• Here this BBC news headline reads: Pakistan drone attack 'kills 16 militants' A US drone attack on Pakistani soil which kills 16 'civilians' is labelled as Pakistan drone attack. (Mind you that only 2 militants were killed on 24th July, 2010 twin drone attacks with 24 civilian deaths) It doesn't look like a US drone attack to a naive eye (say, someone who's sitting in Latin America, not sure what's happening in this part of the world) but instead a Pakistan drone attack. Fabulous and ridiculous at the same time, depending on which side of the fence you're sitting! #
• On how the pundit's writings, sometimes not even fully thought through - why else would he in retrospect claim "As one who used to advocate strongly for the liberation of Iraq (perhaps more strongly than I knew)" - can influence soldier's choices on the ground. Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair. #