Praveen Swami

The Pakistani garrison at Tabuk began blossoming—not to defend any particular border, but to protect the House of Saud from destruction.

Before Donald Trump, Saddam Hussein was seduced by the promise of an easy victory. In the aftermath of the bloody war, Iran ended up with profound influence in Shia-majority Iraq.

For many days now, the world's been trying to make sense of Pakistan's emergence as a key actor in the peace talks between Iran and the US.

In October 1971, as the Indian Army massed in preparation for war, Field Marshal Yahya Khan took the time to attend the party of the century, thrown by the Iranian monarchy at Persepolis.

Britain’s failure to secure the oil of Arabia in the 1950s was no misjudgement. The sun was setting on the Empire, and a new hegemon had emerged. Is another anarchy on the rise now?

The world’s attention is fixed on the Persian Gulf, but the crisis in Mali demands urgent attention.

Led by Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, and with Pakistan and Egypt as its providers of hard military power, the group seeks to push back against Iran’s power in the Persian Gulf.

For Trump, the killing of IS second-in-command, al-Minuki, is an ad for the new counter-terrorism doctrine. But America needs to ask itself why taking the hammer to the problem has failed to demolish it.

The growing reluctance of America to risk fortune and blood to defend distant allies could end up making wars not only more likely, but unimaginably more lethal.

Like Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan, Russia’s role is simply to feed the dragon. Low energy prices help Beijing, not Moscow.