Saudi Arabia and Iran Woo Pakistan’s Khan

By James M. Dorsey An offer by a Saudi-backed bank to lend financially strapped Pakistan $4 billion is likely intended to bolster Saudi influence when former international cricket player Imran Khan is sworn in in the coming week as the South Asian… Continue Reading

China’s Dilemma on Militancy

by James M. Dorsey China’s recent failure to shield Pakistan from censorship by an international anti-terrorism funding and anti-money laundering body suggests that the People’s Republic is struggling to balance its contradictory interests in South Asia and may be trying… Continue Reading

Pakistan and the Gulf: Feathered Diplomacy

by Alia P. Ahmed Every winter the ordeal resumes. Arab royals and their entourages arrive in the deserts of Pakistan, and set themselves upon a small and unassuming migratory bird. Releasing their falcons into the sky, the sheikhs tear through… Continue Reading

The Contested Center of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

by Alia Ahmed By a strange quirk of history, a small, quiet fishing town lies at the heart of one of the most ambitious development projects for regional integration in Asia: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Gwadar, located in Pakistan’s… Continue Reading

Drones and Blowback

by John Feffer The targeted assassination of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour last weekend wasn’t just another drone strike. First of all, it was conducted by the U.S. military, not the CIA, which has orchestrated nearly all drone strikes… Continue Reading