Pakistan
Pakistan’s Islamist Frontier
27 April 2011
Pakistan’s western Frontier has been a geographic and ideological focal point for "religious" extremism for nearly thirty years. More recently, over the last several years, a "neo-Taliban" insurgency has emerged in the Pak-Afghan border areas which has grown into a complex religio-political movement with three distinct but overlapping objectives. One is focused westward on fueling the Afghan conflict and overturning the Karzai government. A second...
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CTC Sentinel [Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2011]
27 April 2011
This issue includes the following articles:
- Saudi Arabia Moves to Maintain Regime Stability - Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Reaction to Revolution in the Middle East - How the Arab Spring Could Embolden Extremists - Are Islamist Extremists Fighting Among Libya’s Rebels? - Bahrain: Crushing a Challenge to the Royal Family - JI Operative Umar Patek Arrested in Pakistan - The Implications of Colonel Imam’s Murder in Pakistan - Recent Highlights in...
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Kabul’s Long Shadows: Historical Perspectives
18 April 2011
After a decade of direct military intervention provoked by the attacks of September 11, 2001, and even after urgent reinforcements decided in 2009 and dispatched in 2010 in the midst of painful national debates throughout the Western alliance, the attainment of fundamental US and NATO policy goals in Afghanistan appeared far more elusive in early 2011 than in the first optimistic months of the new post-Taliban Afghan government installed in December...
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Al-Qaeda’s Persistent Sanctuary
18 April 2011
Since the mid-1990s, al-Qaeda’s senior leadership has enjoyed a sanctuary in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today, al-Qaeda continues to present a grave threat from this region by providing strategic guidance, overseeing or encouraging terrorist operations, managing a robust propaganda campaign, conducting training and collecting and distributing financial assistance. As demonstrated over the past year, key al-Qaeda operatives such as Ilyas Kashmiri have...
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Lashkar-e-What? Tehrik-i-Who? A Whirlwind Tour of the Many Pakistani Terror Groups.
14 April 2011
How many terror groups are there in Pakistan, and what do they all want? At least a dozen, and all sorts of things. Keeping tabs on every terrorist organization in Pakistan is a daunting task, in large part because they regularly change names, merge, and splinter. SOURCE: Slate Magazine
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State of Human Rights in 2010
14 April 2011
This report is a comprehensive, in-depth examination of human rights issues in Pakistan in 2010 in the areas of law and law-making; administration of justice; law and order; jails and prisoners; freedom of movement; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of expression; freedom of assembly; freedom of association; women; children; labour; education; health; housing; environment; and refugees. SOURCE: Human Rights Commission of Pa...
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Gwadar: Pakistan's New Great Game
13 April 2011
Miles away from the war on terror being fought in Pakistan's north on the border with Afghanistan is another insurgency whose hub is the port city of Gwadar, located near Iran on the Makran coast. Unlike the battle against the Taliban, this uprising receives little international attention, although it is set against the backdrop of competing superpower interests, reminiscent of the Great Game when Russia and the British empire fought for control over...
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Stability in the Middle East: The Other Side of Security
13 April 2011
National security is normally seen in terms of military strength and internal security operations against extremists and insurgents. The upheavals that began in Tunis, and now play out from Pakistan to Morocco,. have highlighted the fact that national security is measured in terms of the politics, economics, and social tensions that shape national stability as well. It is all too clear that the wrong kind of internal security efforts, and national...
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States of Conflict: An Update on Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
13 April 2011
Leaving aside all the new conflicts in the Middle East, how are our nation's longstanding struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan going? This factsheet lists U.S. troop numbers, U.S. troop deaths, security force numbers, security force deaths, civilian deaths from war, number of attacks, cost, and other factors for conflicts in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan for the first quarters of 2009, 2010, and 2011. SOURCE: Brookings Institute
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Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: A Pakistani Narrative
07 April 2011
A paper authored by Mr. Rahim Ullah Yousafzai, Executive Editor, The NEWS International at Peshawar bureau and a prolific writer on security issues, provides an overview of the state of Pak-Afghan Relations and analyses different issues that affect the relations between two Islamic neighbouring states. Some of the issues covered in the paper include terrorism, narcotics control, water resource issues, media and Afghan refugees, etc. as well as provide...
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