Asia

Priya Satia | (Huffington Post) | – – The Indian community of Silicon Valley is preparing to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with open arms next week, in a route stop that has outshined the PM’s ultimate U.S. destination–his meeting with President Obama. Mr. Modi comes to promote Digital India, and local Indians are […]

Books

How Persian Literature shaped the culture of Iran and India

contributors

Sunil Sharma interviewed by Maryam Kamali | ( Iranian Medieval History) Sunil Sharma is the Associate Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature at Boston University’s Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature Dear Prof. Sharma, it is my great pleasure to have an interview with you regarding medieval Persian literature. One of the controversial issues […]

Afghanistan

Is al-Zawahiri’s oath to Taliban a sign al-Qaeda is finished? Will ISIL step In?

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/ RL ) – – After almost a year of silence, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has released an audio message swearing bay'ah — an oath of allegiance — to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, the new leader of the Taliban. Zawahri's message is in many ways another response to, and nullification of, […]

Japan

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the single greatest acts of terrorism in human history?

contributors

by Akil Awan | (The New Statesman) – – Surely 70 years is long enough for us to put to rest the tired canard of the atomic bombings on Japan being “the lesser of the two evils”, and recognise the true gravity of this crime against humanity. Seventy years ago today, the Unites States dropped […]

Japan

How Dropping the A-Bomb on Japan initiated the Military-Industrial Complex

contributors

By Michael Hiltzik | (Author, Big Science) | – – This summer — August 6 and 9, to be precise — marks the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Seven decades on, the social, political, and moral implications of birth of the nuclear age still are widely and bitterly debated. Indeed, […]

China

As GOP fumes re: Iran, Russia & China are outflanking West with New Eurasia Silk Road

contributors

By Pepe Escobar | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let’s start with the geopolitical Big Bang you know nothing about, the one that occurred just two weeks ago. Here are its results: from now on, any possible future attack on Iran threatened by the Pentagon (in conjunction with NATO) would essentially be an assault on the planning […]

China

US Right needs to get over Self: Iran Deal is International

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The single biggest misunderstanding about the nuclear agreement with Iran is that it is a bilateral deal with the United States. Not true. “Beware of American and Israeli politicians and commentators who claim this agreement will enable Iran to acquire nuclear […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: The First Rule of Counter-Insurgency is that it Doesn’t Ever Work

contributors

By William R. Polk | (Informed Comment) | – – The people of Afghanistan at least since the time of Alexander the Great had repeatedly and violently demonstrated their determination not to be ruled by foreigners. In 1842 they inflicted the worst defeat the British army suffered in the Nineteenth century. Soberly, the British then […]

Afghanistan

Pushtun Female Commandos Ready to Take on the Taliban

contributors

By Ashfaq Yusufzai | (Inter Press Service) | – – PESHAWAR, Pakistan (IPS) – For years, Robina Shah has dreamed of joining the police force. Ever since her father, a police constable, was killed in a 2013 Taliban suicide attack in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, she has longed to carry on […]