Salman Rafi Sheikh

Numerous incidents of violence and conflict and consequent news of constructing new habitations constitute the main outline, in the Western media, of the “Palestinian” conflict. Usually, the stories of violence are covered under the heading of targeting the so-called “terrorists...

The US’ decision to effect “pivot” to Asia has also stimulated some major powers of Asia to build their strangleholds across different countries. The underlying logic for this policy shift is the threat perception they have from this and many other strategic moves of the US. In a...

The so-called ‘all-times’ alliance between the US and Israel --- the supposedly ‘only’ democratic state in the Middle East --- has  largely been determined by politico-strategic expediencies  rather than by some ‘natural’ convergence of interests...

The killing of Hakimullah Mahsud on November 1, 2103 in a drone attack is said to have derailed the peace process, however fragile it was, between Pakistan and the Taliban (TTP and that serious resentment is being observed among the Pakistani authorities over the US strategy...

One of the most conspicuous features of the international system is the shifting nature of what are commonly called the “durable alliances.” Perhaps, it is for this very reason that state to state relations and alliances are more often characterized as artificial in the sense that they...

The BRICS are said to have emerged as a major challenge to the so called global hegemony of the US and its satellites. It is a politico-economic union of five countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa striving to come up with some sort of a formula which could help them co-ordinate their...

Although it appears that the 12 year Afghan war will end in stalemate in 2014 with Afghan resistance groups poised to pounce as NATO troops are on the way out, the Taliban have taken considerable beating as well and have been compelled to alter its position dramatically. Not only have they...

The much heated debate in the western media on the ‘probable’ use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, and the US’ attempts to use this ‘use’ of weapons of mass destruction to legitimize an attack on Syria has left virtually minimum room for investigating as to how the world...

It has been said that “conflict is endemic to budgeting.” Nothing else would prove this statement more accurately as the example of the latest  government shutdown in the U.S. Conflict between the US Congress, opposition and the US President over fiscal allocations…

Change in the leadership of Qatar has been followed by certain significant geo-political changes not only in Qatar, but also in the Middle East and beyond, leading to a relationship of ‘near-confrontation’ between Qatar and Saudia on the one hand, and Qatar and the US on the other...

The misery of widespread destruction and devastation brought by the US military invasions, covert interventions, and the US-sponsored UNSC / EU sanctions against a handful of countries is continuing. On their...