It should be recalled that Pakistan held general elections on 8 February this year, the official results of which were announced a month later. As none of the country’s three main political forces won the necessary majority in parliament, two of them, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan People’s Party, formed a very tentative coalition to create the institutions of power. The leaders of these parties shared the posts of prime minister and president. The former was filled by Shehbaz Sharif after a six-month resignation, while Asif Ali Zardari, who had held the post from 2008 to 2013, became President…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement in March 2024 for the release of the remaining $1.1 billion out of the total $3 billion bailout package. The 9-month bailout package was sought by the Pakistani government last year to avert the sovereign debt. The country has been dependent on IMF loans for decades to fuel its staggering economy. This was Pakistan’s 24^th engagement with the Washington-based lender…

In the second half of March (i.e. a month before the actual election process begins), in the midst of the pre-election situation in India, which is monitored more or less regularly by NEO, an event occurred which unexpectedly provoked a rather loud (and negative) international reaction. Of course, the fact of holding parliamentary elections in a country whose role in the current global political processes is becoming more and more prominent cannot but be the subject of external attention.

The trend in recent years and even months to talk more and more frequently and actively about the Global South as such, and about Africa in particular, may in some cases be seen as a fashionable, superficial fad, but it is not without a significant practical component. Even a cursory analysis of the dynamics of bilateral meetings and summits with an “African focus” is the most vivid illustration of the “turn to Africa”…

India is a democratic republic with a federal system and a parliamentary government. The highest legislative body is the Parliament, which consists of an upper chamber, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States, 245 deputies – 233 elected by the state legislatures and 12 appointed by the President) and a lower chamber, the Lok Sabha (House of the People, 545 deputies – 543 elected by direct vote of the population and 2 appointed by the President). Although India’s head of state is the President…

The recent trip by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to South Korea and Japan, which began on March 5, represents a significant development in the political game being played out in the Indo-Pacific region. Particularly since the role of the main “local” players in the region, already very significant today, is only likely to increase with time. Not least because the regional influence of the present leading global power is set to decline, a process which the present author…

The results of the general elections held on 8 February for the lower house of the central parliament (“National Assembly”) and the assemblies of the country’s four major administrative units – Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh – have been officially announced in Pakistan. As none of the political organisations that contested the elections won a convincing majority in the new central parliament, a ruling coalition has been formed between two parties…

The Indian leadership’s foreign policy has traditionally been characterised by a multi-vector and independent foreign policy, intolerance of any external pressure or imposition of foreign recommendations and advice. New Delhi can afford such an independent foreign policy, given India’s status as a major Asian power, its claim to a certain global role and its self-confidence as the world’s third largest economy. And no major power would dare dictate its terms to India, knowing that such an action would inevitably be met with rejection…

Germany recently hosted the 60th International Conference on Security and the World Situation. This largest international forum brought together more than 40 heads of state and government, some 90 ministers, mainly of defence and foreign affairs, prominent political scientists, experts and media representatives. For the third year in a row, official Russian representatives were absent from the conference, although Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once attended the forum…

On 13-15 February this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the Middle East on the formal occasion of attending the regular “World Government Summit”, which is one of the many international forum platforms that have emerged in recent years. Launched in 2015 at the initiative of the leadership of the United Arab Emirates, the World Government Summit is held annually with a different composition of participants in the capital Abu Dhabi. After addressing the forum and holding a number of meetings “on occasion”…

Voting in Pakistan’s much-anticipated general election on 8 February began at 8 a.m., but in the meantime, mobile networks were shut down across the country for more than 26 hours. Pakistanis are not used to network blackouts. There is often no connectivity during bank holidays parades, Muslim Eid and Ashura, protests criticising the ruling establishment and political rallies. Last year alone, mobile networks were down for four days after protests erupted when former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested outside the Islamabad High Court despite…

South Asia’s political stage is perhaps one of the most interesting in the world, characterised by struggling democracies, a heavy and unstable mix of religion and politics, and the presence of political dynasties. As Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after years of exile in the United Kingdom amidst controversy after controversy, it is perhaps worthwhile to take a look at the different political dynasties in South Asia and their dynamics in their countries…