Latest Articles about South Asia
Drone Attacks: Pakistan’s Policy and the Tribesmen’s Perspective
This paper provides an analysis of Pakistan's policy on unmanned aerial vehicle (“drone”) attacks in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and how these attacks are perceived by students from Waziristan, the region most heavily targeted by CIA drones. The interviews with students were conducted... MORE
February 2010 Briefs
END OF THE LINE FOR KUNDUZ SHADOW GOVERNOR Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s “Shadow Governor” for Kunduz Province has been captured in Pakistan after the much-touted arrest of the movement’s military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy of Mullah Mohammed Omar. Salam is a member... MORE
The Indian Navy’s Agenda for Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean
The 2010 U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review noted that "India has already established its worldwide military influence through counter-piracy, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief efforts. As its military capabilities grow, India will contribute to Asia as a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean... MORE
Pakistani Taliban Display Effectiveness of their Intelligence Network with Attack on U.S. Special Forces
Following the Afghan Taliban intelligence coup that led to the late December suicide-bombing at an American base in Khost province that killed seven CIA agents, Pakistan’s Taliban have apparently scored an intelligence success of their own, exposing a secret U.S. operation in the North-West Frontier... MORE
Pakistani Responses to the CIA’s Predator Drone Campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda
Conventional wisdom in the West seems to have coalesced around the notion that the CIA’s airborne assassination campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s remote FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) is driving Pakistanis to new levels of anti-Americanism. Western news sources report routinely on... MORE
Bajaur Agency: The New Landscape of Insurgency in FATA
Amid conflicting reports that Pakistani Taliban Chief Hakimullah Mahsud has succumbed to his injuries after being targeted in a U.S. drone attack last month, there is also news that the deputy chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, has resigned from his position... MORE
Jihad and Islamism in the Maldive Islands
Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed admitted in October, 2009 that hundreds of Maldivian Muslims had been recruited by Pakistan-based terrorist groups and are presently fighting against government forces in Pakistan. [1] The revelation by Nasheed was substantiated by video footage circulated by al-Qaeda’s media wing in... MORE
Moscow Remembers the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
In late December 2009, the Russian press carried numerous articles reflecting on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and its impact on the fate of the Soviet Union. On December 25, the State Duma adopted a statement on the intervention, which recalled the sacrifices of those... MORE
A Guide to Militant Groups in Kashmir
After a few years of relative calm, militancy is slowly but surely resurfacing in the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. In a smaller-scale repeat of Mumbai, two terrorists occupied the Punjab Hotel in downtown Srinagar on January 6. They remained held up there... MORE
Pakistan’s Military Examines its Options in North Waziristan
The United States has been pressuring Pakistan for several months to extend its counterinsurgency operations to North Waziristan. The U.S. perspective is that strong militant entities, especially the Haqqani group, the Hizb-i-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmaytar and Taliban forces under Hafiz Gul Bahadur are using... MORE