Ahmad Fawad Arsala

The Kamdesh episode does not stand alone. It is part of a broader pattern, one that becomes unmistakable when placed alongside Pakistan’s expanding campaign of cross-border airstrikes inside Afghanistan. Together, they reveal a consistent…

Waiting for November Under Sanctions, Hormoz Closure: Boeing 777 Aircraft and Iran’s Shrinking Reach The latest US sanctions are not incremental policy adjustments. They are a decisive escalation designed to shut down an entire sector.…

There is a widening gap between what Pakistan’s military leadership says and what it actually does. Nowhere is this more visible than in its posture toward Saudi Arabia. Public statements are emphatic, even theatrical. Pakistan’s military…

Pakistan’s conduct toward Afghanistan has crossed the line from manipulation into outright sabotage. This is no longer a matter of strategic ambiguity or competing narratives. It is a deliberate campaign to keep Afghanistan weak,…

The backlash against Aisha Wahab’s August 2026 remarks reveals less about her position and more about a persistent analytical failure in how Afghanistan is discussed in Western and diaspora circles. Her statement has been hastily…

In recent months, and particularly in recent days, three distinct approaches to political change in Afghanistan have emerged. They represent three fundamentally different answers to the same question: how can Afghanistan move beyond the…

In the dislocation that followed August 2021, Afghanistan’s exiled elite faced a defining question: how to serve a country they could no longer physically inhabit. The answers have varied, but few contrasts are as stark, or as…

For decades, Pakistan has positioned itself as a moral commentator on regional conflicts. It has lectured India on Kashmir, condemned human rights abuses across the Line of Control, demanded international investigations, and insisted that…

Pakistan’s Crypto Diplomacy and the Anatomy of a Failing State The recent revelations linking Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency windfall to Pakistani networks are no longer speculative. They are anchored in converging…

There is a difference between political reflection and political evasion. The latest statement by Ashraf Ghani falls decisively into the latter category, and this time the contradictions are no longer subtle. They are glaring. At a…