Sreeram Chaulia

The decades-old disputed region has entered an intriguing new phase where India is pushing the envelope, Pakistan is staring at a dead end, and the US is flirting with intervention.

By all accounts, India’s general election is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s to lose.

The sharp escalation of tensions and clashes between India and Pakistan in recent weeks symbolizes a new phase in an old confrontation that dates back to the bitter partition of the two countries in 1947 on religious lines.

The ‘Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act’ bipartisan bill in the US Senate suggests that long-missing congressional activism in American foreign policy might be on the horizon, but likely would be on a selective basis.

An old Chinese proverb states "crisis is opportunity riding a dangerous wind." Trump's trade war with China and accusations of political meddling against Beijing are dangerous winds & have hurt relations between the great powers.

India and the US will hold their first ‘two-plus-two’ dialogue intended to expand “global strategic partnership.” Whether it can help overcome the drift and uncertainty that has crept into bilateral ties is anyone’s guess.

Rome was neither built in a day and nor did it decline instantly. Italy has been crumbling over the last two decades under the weight of structural malfunction.

Coordinated military strikes by the US, France and the UK against Syrian government installations as punishment for President Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons have deepened the quagmire instead of deterring war crimes.

The revelation by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that his government has paid Russia a deposit and signed an agreement for buying the S-400 anti-aircraft system is a setback for the US-led military bloc NATO.

Trump’s Afghanistan plan is neither a game-changer nor a sharp departure from what we’ve seen since the George W. Bush administration. But it creates avenues for India to play a larger role in Afghanistan and is likely to cement the Pakistan-China alliance.