In most of the world, December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus.  In Pakistan, it is more widely celebrated as the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father whose insistence on a separate state for the Muslims of British India led to the partition of the raj.Ardeshir Cowasjee, one of Pakistan’s great […]

The Times of India reports that Pakistan has named the largest bank in China to lead a consortium of funders who will finance a $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan.  Reporting on a visit by the highly regarded Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo to Pakistan, the Indian newspaper notes that Dai called for […]

Last night something like 100,000 Christians from Israel, the West Bank and abroad celebrated a peaceful Christmas in Manger Square where the Church of the Nativity marks a spot long believed to be the actual place where Jesus was born.  The secular Fatah government that runs the West Bank believes that the Palestinian nation includes […]

The big news last week was the death of Kim Jong-Il. Fond of speculating on North Korean politics, the media was of course in high gear trying to figure out what comes next for the Hermit Kingdom. No one knows, though a week after the Great Leader departed this world, he seems to have left […]

James Holmes, a professor of strategy at the Naval War College, is thinking about America’s new Pacific entente, the rise of China, and the possible directions US-Indian cooperation can take down the road.  Blogging at The Diplomat, Holmes writes: The U.S., Japanese, South Korean, and Australian navies already field Aegis and ballistic-missile defense systems or […]

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Christmas message to the Falkland Islanders was as clear as anything Mrs. Thatcher would have said. Whatever challenges we face in the UK, the British Government’s commitment to the security and prosperity of the overseas territories, including the Falklands, remains undiminished. ”So let me be absolutely clear. We will always maintain […]

As political and economic conditions in Egypt deteriorate, a new kind of refugee is beginning to appear, one that will test America’s character.  Violence against Christians is growing; bad economic times, the inability or unwillingness of security forces and police to keep order, and the growing tide of Islamist political and religious mobilizations is making […]

Earlier in the week, Via Meadia commented on how Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s remarks to CBS were so strong that the Obama administration seems committed to military measures if Iran proceeds with its nuclear program.  For many commentators, that point was overshadowed by the aggressive timetable the SecDef laid out, suggesting that the mullahs could […]

The American withdrawal was going to lead to a time of testing in Iraq in any case, but political overreaching by the Shiite majority is making a bad situation worse.During the first years of the American presence, it was the Sunnis who fatally misread the power realities of Iraq.  Having been dominant in Iraq since […]

Against a background of growing concern about slowing growth, the Indian government is launching a major infrastructure drive, targeting power plants, highways, airports and other critical bottlenecks that are slowing the country’s growth, reports the Financial Times.Greens will not rejoice; the government wants a rapid expansion of coal mining, believing that exploiting domestic coal represents […]