December 15, 2008

NATO trucking woes in Pakistan continue

The Daily Telegraph's Isambard Wilkinson reports that the main trade association for Pakistani trucking companies that haul NATO goods into Afghanistan from Karachi has now decided to halt all NATO...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:40 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

December 11, 2008

Getting to Global Zero (Nuclear Weapons)

I went to a great press event today, for the new worldwide movement 'Global Zero', which has rolled out what looks like a quite achievable plan to verifiably rid the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:28 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

November 29, 2008

Goal of the Mumbai attacks: Sparking India-Pakistan war?

The perpetrators of the recent wave of anti-civilian (i.e. terror) attacks in Mumbai were evidently well organized and well prepared for their mission. It was almost certainly planned as a...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:39 PM | Fulltext link (17 comments)

September 18, 2008

Af-Pakistan on brink-- of what?

When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs goes to Pakistan and the Defense Secretary to Afghanistan on the same day, as they did yesterday, you have to know they are...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:12 AM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

September 17, 2008

Turkey mediating between Afghanistan and Pakistan

While its mediation between Israel and Syria continues, Turkey's foreign ministry has now also launched a mediation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Fascinating....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:57 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

December 30, 2007

Oh, those feudal "socialists"...

Juan Cole is reporting that the leaders of the Bhutto-ist "Pakistan People's Party" have anointed Benazir's 19-year-old son Bilawal to be the party's next leader, with a feudal lord of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:25 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

December 29, 2007

Pakistan as an issue in Asia

Benazir Bhutto's killing was horrific. At a personal level I can only hope she didn't suffer too much as she died. But she had already shown herself to be an...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:15 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

November 18, 2007

Yet more Americo-myopia on Pakistan

... This time it comes from veteran warmonger Fred Kagan and (imho, sadly) Brookings's Michael O'Hanlon, writing in today's NYT. In a sense, the title of their op-ed says it...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:42 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

November 15, 2007

Washington's continued coup preparations for Pakistan

So here's the deal: The Bush administration, which until recently has been pushing Pakistan's Prez Musharraf very hard to "take off his uniform" and rule as a civilian, has become...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:03 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

November 10, 2007

Pakistan: Khalilzad's third target?

China Hand had another very informative post yesterday about the US and Pakistan. S/he was looking specifically about the role that Zal Khalilzad may well have been playing in pushing...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:57 AM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

November 08, 2007

Pakistan in world politics

"China Hand" has a truly great post on "The China Factor in Pakistani Politics" over at her/his China Matters blog. I had noted it briefly toward the end of (the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:00 PM | Fulltext link (32 comments)

US "leadership" and Pakistan

Maybe I'm naive, but I have been amazed all over again to see the unthinkingly "imperial" way in which many or most US commentators have been writing and talking about...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:49 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 07, 2007

The real story in Pakistan/Afghanistan: Taliban rising

Asia Times's Syed Saleem Shahzad has a must-read story on their website Thursday. He writes: While the world's attention focused on the troubles of President General Pervez Musharraf following his...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:50 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

November 04, 2007

Bushites and Pakistan: Strategic erosion, diplomatic own-goals

The first thing to note is that the (linked) security situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been getting significantly worse over the past 18 months. That is bad news-- because...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:08 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)