Introduction In December, officials from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan told the Hindustan Times that a network of ten nationals from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were detained in Kabul for organizing a “terrorist cell.” Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) began a crackdown... MORE

Bangladesh is witnessing a surge in Islamist activism and violence. For example, in October and November 2020, the hardline Islamist Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh (HIB) led massive demonstrations to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of free speech laws that allow cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed... MORE

The changing narratives and operations of al-Qaeda and its Pakistani ally, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in recent years indicate that the anti-state jihadist war in Pakistan will not end with a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 or thereafter (The News, March 1). Recent speeches by... MORE

Introduction Recent clashes between India and China over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) have created a potential existential crisis for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The dispute flared up in May of this year, escalating in June and resulting in the first deaths of... MORE

Introduction On November 15, fifteen nations in the Indo-Pacific region — including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the ten ASEAN members Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines — signed the world’s largest trade agreement. Known as... MORE

The United States and other Western countries have worked long and hard to marginalize Iran as punishment for its transgressions on the international stage. Nevertheless, Iran’s neighbors as well as states further out, including Russia, China and the Central Asian republics, understand that their plans... MORE

The Eighth Annual Bilateral Consultations between Uzbekistan and the United States were held in Washington on November 15–22 (The Tashkent Times, November 22). Tashkent had two main goals for these high-level talks. First, it sought to reconfirm Uzbekistan’s foreign policy of maintaining equally favorable relations... MORE

Introduction The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is set to begin construction on a strategic stretch of railway between Ya’an city in the southern province of Sichuan and Nyingchi (Linzhi) city in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR, also commonly referred to as Tibet). The Ya’an-Nyingchi... MORE

The global jihadist group al-Qaeda is experiencing an unprecedented crisis, having lost several key members of its central leadership this year. The latest prominent al-Qaeda figure to be killed is Abu Muhammad al-Masri, one of two deputies to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Reports about his... MORE

On September 5, the Taliban announced its 21-member team that would engage in negotiations with Afghan government representatives at Doha, Qatar. The Taliban’s ”Chief Justice,“ Mawlawi Abdul Hakim, an “ultraconservative” and “hardline cleric,” was appointed chief of the negotiating team. He replaced Sher Mohammad Abbas... MORE