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Saturday, January 3, 2026
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Taliban is gambling for strategic autonomy. Will Iran, China fill the Pakistan-sized hole?

Cutting trade ties with Pakistan is easier said than done: the neighbouring country is Afghanistan’s largest single trading partner, taking in 45 per cent of Afghan exports in 2024.

Kashmir’s new-generation jihadis want to attack India’s heartland, not just its army

Lack of movement on building a genuine democratic culture in Kashmir after 2019 is helping the region’s jihadists.

Saudi oil power is waning. What this means for its ties to the US

There’s little doubt that Saudi Arabia contributed to its own problems, driven by leadership hubris and poor advice. The Line is a case in point.

Sudan shows what happens when the world is happy to let mass killers rule

Fourteen million refugees, and 25 million facing acute hunger, should be reason enough for the world to dismantle the dystopia in Sudan — even if the sadism of its rulers is not.

War was the norm between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Asim Munir is bringing it back

Pakistan massively enhanced the funding for Islamists in Afghanistan, hoping to bury ethnic nationalism. That strategy has now backfired spectacularly.

Russia’s super-missile test shows a new, expensive technological race—with dire outcomes

The test raises a question. Why have Russian nuclear strategists now invested in the Burevestnik, when the US abandoned nuclear ramjet propulsion in 1964?

Trump wants to control ‘unruly’ regimes—so he launched a war on Venezuela

Like drug wars in the past, Trump’s efforts are likely to deepen the chaos in Central America—exposing the US to greater danger.

America imagines Asim Munir is the cure to jihadism. He is the disease

Less than an hour earlier, William Putscher had been lunching on a hot dog by the poolside, in the congenial environment of the American...

FM Muttaqi’s Deoband visit signals Taliban sharpening daggers for Pakistan

Taliban factions nurture the TTP as both an ideological ally and because Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada’s regime views the borderlands as Afghan, not Pakistani.

America gifted China its rare-earth monopoly — and India helped too

The rare-earth crisis shows how misplaced government policies and corporate greed can collude to create a strategic crisis.

On Camera

How Gen-Z is changing the violent extremist landscape online

The evolving extremist threat now hinges on young people online, demanding new strategies beyond traditional counter-terror models.

India’s urban co-op banks are turning the page—crisis to cautious revival, one metric at a time

With bad loans shrinking & capital buffers stronger, urban co-op banks’ new umbrella body NUCFDC is now prioritising rollout of digital transformation.

Greece looking at TATA’s WhAP infantry combat vehicle for army procurement

If deal goes through, Greece will be 2nd foreign country to procure vehicle. Morocco was first; TATA Group has set up manufacturing unit there with minimum 30 percent indigenous content.

A year-end Mea Culpa in National Interest—The Army-Islam combo doesn’t kill democracy

Many of you might think I got something so wrong in National Interest pieces written this year. I might disagree! But some deserve a Mea Culpa. I’d deal with the most recent this week.