Salman Rafi Sheikh
Iran’s SCO Membership: Implications for the JCPOA Revival
Even as the Biden administration continues to follow a lacklustre approach to revive the JCPOA, following essentially the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy to force Iran into agreeing to enter a new JCPOA, Iran’s recently ensured membership of the SCO comes as an additional dilemma for the US in the sense...
Afghanistan: America’s Moment of National Embarrassment
With the Afghan Taliban’s (terrorist organization, banned in Russia successful military occupation of Kabul on August 15, 2021 America’s twenty years’ debacle in Afghanistan has come to an embarrassing end after almost twenty years of what millions of the Americans believed was a ‘war on terror’ to ‘end terror.’ While the Taliban’s ultimate success was never unexpected...
The US has Little to Offer to Southeast Asia
In his recent visit to Southeast Asia – the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore – the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, outlined what can be called the blueprint of US re-engagement with the region after a lull of few years. One thing that becomes strikingly clear is that the US needs China to survive in Southeast Asia. However, the US does not need China as a friend...
