How Current Great-Power Competition Helps Taliban In Afghanistan – Analysis

By Observer Research Foundation

By Kabir Taneja

The Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan is a new geopolitical reality that the world is still grappling with. Over the past year, the Taliban has continued its quest for diplomatic recognition with varying degrees of success. While most countries have shied away from affording the group any status of political normalcy, others such as Iran, Russia, and China, pushed by new challenges to the global order, have engaged with the group with more fervour and pragmaticism as the Ukraine Crisis split traditional diplomatic arrangements down the middle.

The Ukraine Crisis has come at a time when the world was only wrapping its head around the events that took place in Afghanistan. Unlike the 1990s, this takeover by the Taliban was broadcast live globally on cable news and social media alike. Images of an unchallenged Taliban taking over the government in Kabul while the US conducted a botched and hurried exit remain pertinent. The Taliban’s new rule arrived as a reality, and the international community was now tasked with responding to an Islamist insurgency in control of a country amidst a tired post-9/11 US-led counter-terrorism narrative.

However, the conflict in Europe arguably came as a boon for the Taliban which was staring down on becoming a global pariah once again. Russia’s actions against Kiev caused tectonic shifts, setting off Cold War-era-like boundaries across the international arena. A conflict in Europe was not something the West was expecting, and in an era where the largest worry was an incoming great power competition between the US and China, Washington’s renewal of old rivalries with Moscow added to these complications significantly.

Nonetheless, for the Taliban, this fracture bodes well as it can mobilise to cement itself more firmly as a legitimate political entity. The Taliban has over the past year and a half gained control of a few of Afghanistan’s embassies in Central Asia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, Malaysia, Russia, and China. More recently, it has now even appointed a new “caretaker” Consul General in Dubai, highlighting a slow change in approach by the likes of the United Arab Emirates as well. In hindsight, having a diplomatic outreach with most of its neighbours today in less than two years since coming back to power is not a bad track record. Overall, proscribed militant groups are having a heyday in utilising these geopolitical fractures. From the Taliban continuing with its diplomatic push to Hamas visiting Moscow, engaging with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and claiming it as a reflection of its weight amongst global powers, realpolitik vacuums offer room to manoeuvre for everyone.

A forgotten Afghanistan in the West was seen as an open opportunity by others. West’s consolidation against Russia has given China more space to work with. Beijing’s long-standing relations with Iran and Moscow’s increasing reliance on the Chinese economy give the three most active countries in Kabul precedence to broadly collaborate despite having fundamental differences with the Taliban regime. However, these differences are largely seen as irritants in the broader framework of a fast-developing ‘West vs East’ narrative. While Iran continues to have very close contact with the Taliban regime, aided by regular visits by officials from both states, Russia has also strengthened its presence.

Meanwhile, China is marketing itself as Afghanistan’s main economic partner for the future. In all these manoeuvres, for Russia, China and Iran, the central idea is to keep the US and Europe out of the region, including from Central Asia, for a long time. And it is imperative to remember here that both Tehran and Moscow were previously the main patrons of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance along with the India and Tajikistan, the DNA of which formulated the post-2001 Afghan governments of presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.

However, the above is also a litmus test for the Taliban’s acumen to play the game of international diplomacy. While the movement may not have deep experience in the play of realpolitik, they are not complete novice in this field. The Taliban’s negotiators have been operating their political office in Doha, Qatar, since 2013 and all said and done, did successfully negotiate a favourable deal for themselves with the US in 2021.

Even prior to that, in the 1990s, under the reign of their founder, Mullah Omar, the Taliban sought to build on a hijacking crisis as a mediator, and in doing so, tried to come out with a level of independent diplomatic and political heft. The hijacking crisis of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999 ended in Kandahar after eight days with the safe release of almost all passengers (1 was killed) and New Delhi in exchange for freeing prisoners related to militancy in Kashmir. “It was great and positive work that the Taliban did… [also] the Taliban has an independent viewpoint, regardless of what Pakistan says,” said Syed Akbar Agha, former chief of the Jaish-ul-Muslimeen and known to be close to the Taliban during that period.

Much has changed with the Taliban interim government of today which, at least in perception, is operating like a quasi-state structure. However, the interim government itself continues to be riddled with stark internal differences. While the official political arrangement in Kabul seems keen to cooperate with international actors on certain deliverables, such as women’s education, technically a low-hanging fruit for both sides, the ideological core of the group run from Kandahar by its Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada remains unmoved over demands for providing religious concessions in exchange for international legitimacy.

Important new research published by scholars Mohammad Eshan Zia and Sana Tariq that looks into the Taliban’s diplomacy efforts highlights the fact that the movement’s experience of a failed intra-Afghan dialogue, specifically within the ultraconservative base, has hampered a level of faith within the group’s top leadership that dialogue indeed works (and takes time). This may look simplistic; however, it needs to be remembered that the Taliban is an ideological movement first, and a “state” by international governance understanding only second. The former is the anchor for its existence, and the latter, a tool only for practical purposes.

The Taliban have not changed but the West has in its view of Afghanistan. With rapid movements of global geopolitical flashpoints, the Taliban are in fact in a strong position to solidify themselves politically by weaponising an overall disinterest in Afghanistan in the West coupled with a general lack of a common view on the issue by regional and neighbouring states. For the Taliban, their biggest hindrance remains their own long-standing internal ethnic and political divisions.

 March 19, 2023 

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Mehr News Agency

Observer Research Foundation

ORF was established on 5 September 1990 as a private, not for profit, ’think tank’ to influence public policy formulation. The Foundation brought together, for the first time, leading Indian economists and policymakers to present An Agenda for Economic Reforms in India. The idea was to help develop a consensus in favour of economic reforms.

Peru Seeks To Close Door On Shining Path – Analysis

 

File photo of a member of the terrorist group Shining Path in Peru. Photo Credit: Social Media

By The Jamestown Foundation

By Jacob Zenn

The February 11 ambush in the valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro rivers (VRAEM) region of Peru may prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Shining Path. With seven officers killed in the ambush, including from the National Directorate of Special Operations and the Natividad police force, the Peruvian government has now become more determined to not only eradicate the remnants of Shining Path in VRAEM, but also the narco-trafficking industry more generally (Elcomercio, February 12).

Following the ambush, Peruvian president Dina Boluarte vowed to “fight against this alliance of terrorism and drug-trafficking in the VRAEM and throughout the nation’s territory” and asserted that “[w]e will not allow more deaths and more violence” (Ambito, February 13).

Boluarte has herself been mired in political controversy since she became president in early December 2022. This occurred following the removal of Pedro Castillo from the office of president, after he attempted to dissolve the Peruvian Congress. Although Boluarte initially sought to promote unity and to combat corruption, it appears that counter-terrorism has quickly moved up her list of priorities (Elpais, December 12, 2022). In implementing a Peruvian version of the “War on Terror,” Boluarte will now be able to portray herself as a strong leader. This may further shore up her political support as well as insulate her from being ousted like her predecessor, Castillo.

The ambush was also surprising insofar as it was inconsistent with recent trends regarding the security forces’ confrontation with the Shining Path and related narco-traffickers. In January, for example, the Ayacucho People’s Defense Front (FREDEPA) chairwoman, Rocio Leandro Melgar (also known as “Comrade Cusi”) was arrested at the Home of Teachers building in Ayacucho, Huamanga province in VRAEM (Andina, January 13). Moreover, in October 2022, the Peruvian security forces claimed to have killed 15 Shining Path members in VRAEM (Dialogo-Americas, October 3, 2022). Thus, the momentum was with the security forces prior to the February 11 ambush.

Although FREDEPA is not Shining Path in name, the Peruvian government associates the two as if FREDEPA were a front group for Shining Path. Indeed, Comrade Cusi had been involved in Shining Path since the organization was founded in the 1980s. However, FREDEPA—and specifically the “Red Faction” in which the Peruvian security forces allege Comrade Cusi participated—does not generally conduct attacks like Shining Path did during its 1980s heyday or like the ambush on February 11. Rather, Comrade Cusi was better known for providing money to illegal miners to protest against “capitalism in Huamanga and other sites in Peru” (Latin-America.News, February 16). In what can be seen as a positive development, a number of former Shining Path members have largely abandoned the group’s previous modus operandi of lethal terrorist attacks and massacres of civilians; instead, some have adopted political pressure activities that are more in line with democratic conventions.

Another example of the changing tide in Shining Path was Iber Maraví’s leading of marches to protest Comrade Cusi’s arrest (Peru21, January 13). Although Maraví had been the labor minister under Castillo, former Shining Path members allege that he had been the commander of Shining Path’s “North Zone” in the 1980s—when Shining Path was at its most violent (RPP, September 21, 2021).

Thus, while Shining Path and narco-traffickers are still militant in nature, it appears that the old-guard members of the Shining Path who are not in prison have gradually resorted to political pressure. Younger members, however, may be less interested in Marxist ideology and more oriented towards narco-trafficking and conducting attacks to protect their illicit business activities.

*About the author: Jacob Zenn is an adjunct assistant professor on African Armed Movements and Violent Non-State Actors in World Politics at the Georgetown University Security Studies Program (SSP) and editor of Terrorism Monitor and senior fellow on African and Eurasian Affairs for The Jamestown Foundation in Washington DC. He authored the book,Unmasking Boko Haram: Exploring Global Jihad in Nigeria, which was published in April 2020 by Lynne Rienner in association with the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews. Zenn has also written on international security for academic journals such as Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Small Wars and Insurgencies, African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal for De-Radicalization, African Security, andthe International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law.

Source: This article was published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor Volume: 21 Issue: 6

 March 19, 2023

The Jamestown Foundation

The Jamestown Foundation’s mission is to inform and educate policy makers and the broader community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information. Utilizing indigenous and primary sources, Jamestown’s material is delivered without political bias, filter or agenda. It is often the only source of information which should be, but is not always, available through official or intelligence channels, especially in regard to Eurasia and

Living in own ideology...
...until it falls apart


Branko Milanovic
Mar 18,2023



In the Summer of 1975, I worked as a tourist guide in Dubrovnik (I started working very young). Dubrovnik is, as many people know, a beautiful city on the Adriatic, on the Croatian coast, that throughout the Middle Ages was a very active port, with contacts throughout the then known world. Venice was its competitor and eventually dominated it; it the end however both the Venetian and the Dubrovnik (Ragusan) republics were abolished by Napoleon in 1797-1806. The existence of Dubrovnik as an independent republic, surrounded on all sides by the powerful Ottoman Empire, was somewhat of a miracle. Ottomans might have regarded it as a useful Hong Kong of the time and never mustered the will to conquer it. Dubrovnik always remained proud of its freedom. In its red flag it emblazoned the golden letters of “Libertas”.

A couple of times that Summer, I went, in the warm and sweet lavender-filled evenings, to watch plays performed at breathtaking spots in the fort overlooking the harbour. The plays were part of a summer-long Dubrovnik festival. The opening of the festival was always accompanied by the raising of the “Libertas” flag. I did not think much of it then but the flag ceremony with the appropriately rousing music was taken by me to hail back to Dubrovnik’s steadfast resistance to foreign invaders. Since Yugoslavia in 1975 was a free country, not ruled by foreigners, or as it was said then, beholden neither to “imperialists” (the United States), nor to “hegemonists” (the Soviet Union), I thought it only normal that the flag of “Libertas” be hoisted and cheered.

About ten years later, in a conversation with a friend who watched the same festival, and with communist rule already crumbling, he mentioned how excited he and everyone were seeing the fluttering flag of freedom every year; to him it presaged the end of communism and the return of democracy. I never thought of that then, and, without telling him, I believed that he either made up that feeling ex post (1985 was very different from 1975) or that he simply imputed to others what might have been the thoughts of a tiny minority.

Then a few years ago, when I visited Zagreb the first time after the civil wars, I met for dinner a Croatian friend whom I have not seen for more than twenty years and with whom I worked in 1975. Somehow during the conversation, she mentioned how the flag of “Libertas” always made her think of Croatian independence and freedom and how she thought that feeling was shared by everyone who was there and saw the flag being raised.

That thought either, I had to acknowledge, never crossed my mind. But that third interpretation of the very same event made me think that, like in the famous Kurosawa’s movie, we all live in our own ideological worlds, interpret all events as implied by that worldview, and imagine that everybody else inhabits it too.

Until things change.

Something similar is happening now in the United States with the ideological impact of the Black Lives Matter movement. Many people thought that racial inequality was indeed an issue in the United States. But it was seen as an ancillary issue, in need of a solution, but not in itself detracting from the view of America as a land of equal opportunity and progress for all. Under the impact of the movement, racial injustice, and many other forms of injustices, are now seen, by many people who never thought so before, as systemic problems. They cannot be made aright by, as Cornel West dismissively and well said, “putting Black faces in high places”. They require a thorough rethinking of the essential features of capitalist societies. Moreover, BLM movement, by bringing into the focus the entire colonial history and Black oppression, has directed our attention to the things which were thought long gone and “solved”: King Leopold’s rule of the Congo, British use of and complicity in slave trade, American and Brazilian slaveries that extended late into the second half of the 19th century. It is very likely that similar issues will be raised soon in other countries: France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Russia.

Ideologies we live are like the air we breathe. We take them as obvious. We are not aware of them, as I was not aware of my own in 1975. Or as my friends were not aware of the ideology that pervaded the World Bank and the IMF in the last two decades of the 20th century. Neoliberalism (which did not use that name then) was so obvious, its lessons and recommendations so clear and common-sensical that it fulfilled the requirements of the best possible ideology: the one that a person defends and implements without ever realizing he is doing so. But it too is now falling apart.

When people ask me how it was to have worked in the World Bank at the time of high neoliberalism, they often believe that we were somehow compelled to believe in the nostrums of neoliberalism. Nothing is further from the truth. Ideology was light and invisible for many; they never felt its weight. Even today I am sure that many friends who implemented it are unaware they ever did. In the early 1990s, an influential person, who would never consider him/herself “neoliberal”, strongly objected to any work on inequality: the issue was not inequality—on the contrary, we needed to create more inequality so that growth can pick up. 

Another influential person (Larry Summers in this case) became infamous by writing a memo that argued that pollutants should be shipped to Africa because the value of human life there is much lower than in rich countries. Although Summers later claimed that the memo was written in jest, it did capture well the spirit of the times. Yet another person who strenuously even now defends him/herself of the neoliberalist tag produced a new approach to a problem that, proudly claimed, solves it by creating a new market. Never having heard that commodification of everything is the basic characteristic of neoliberalism. No Polanyi or fictitious commodities in his world.

Alike to religious believers, neoliberalism seemed to many economists a quintessence of reasonable, common-sensical ideas. John Williamson wrote when he defined the Washington consensus that it is “the common core of wisdom embraced by all serious economists”. Now that neoliberalism, under the shocks of 2007 and 2020, is all but dead, it is easy to see how wrong they were. But while it lasted, people lived in their own ideological worlds, “embraced by all serious economists”, and it seemed to them that everybody else did too. And that it would last forever. As it seemed to me—in 1975.

Global Inequality and More 3.0 | Branko Milanovic | Substack

Italy's Democratic Head Blasts Limit on LGBTQ Parental Rights

Associated Press

Democratic Party Leader Elly Elly Schlein attends a sit-in protest against recent moves by the Italian government to limit recognition of parental rights to the biological parent only in the case of same sex-parents in Milan, March 18, 2023.

ROME —

The head of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party blasted a bureaucratic crackdown on LGBTQ families as ideological, cruel and discriminatory and vowed Saturday to push through legislation to better recognize and protect their rights.

Elly Schlein, who in 2020 revealed she was in a relationship with another woman, joined thousands of people at a demonstration in Milan to protest a move by the far-right-led Italian government to restrict the rights of parents in same-sex relationships.

The Interior Ministry this week forced Milan to limit parental rights to the biological parent when same-sex couples register their children with the city.

Such registrations are required for parents to get their relationship to a child recognized for purposes such as authorizing medical treatment or participation in school outings. The national government’s prefecture for Milan cited a loophole in limiting that authority to a biological parent.

LGBTQ rights activists blasted the move as evidence of the government’s discrimination toward families headed by same-sex couples.

Party leader Schlein has never made her sexual orientation a prominent part of her politics, and she didn’t address Saturday’s protest from the main stage.

Speaking to reporters as the protest wrapped up, she accused Premier Giorgia Meroni's government of “cruelly lashing out” at the children of gay parents and denying them rights.

“We are talking about rights being trampled upon when they are already recognized by our constitution. We are talking about girls and boys already growing up in our communities, going to our schools," Schlein said in comments streamed by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "This is no longer tolerable. These families are tired of being discriminated against.”

The prefecture decree also says parental rights must be limited to the biological parent even for children of same-sex couples who first were registered in other European Union member countries.

LGBTQ rights groups say the underlying decision by an Italian Senate commission to block the recognition of EU documents puts Italy in line with countries such as Poland and Hungary, strong allies of the Meloni government.

“This retrograde majority has inexplicably lashed out at children ideologically," Schlein said. "This goes against a European regulation that establishes a trivial thing and that is that if you are recognized as a daughter or son in another European country, you must also be recognized in Italy.”

The government hasn’t commented on the Milan directive. Meloni, who has a daughter with her partner, has frequently touted her Christian faith and pro-family values.

Schlein said she would press to open debate on legislation to close the legal loophole that resulted in the crackdown.

Also attending Saturday's protest was Francesca Pascale, the former longtime companion of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Pascale, who now is in a same-sex union with another woman, blasted Berlusconi's governing allies as “homophobic.”

“The sovereigntists of this country treat us worse than criminals,” she said. “Civil rights are rights for everyone.”

This country wanted a 69-hour workweek. Millennials and Generation Z had other ideas

By Heather Chen, Yoonjung Seo and Andrew Raine, CNN

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

Shorter workweeks to boost employee mental health and productivity may be catching on in some places around the world, but at least one country appears to have missed the memo.

The South Korean government was this week forced to rethink a plan that would have raised its cap on working hours to 69 per week, up from the current limit of 52, after sparking a backlash among Millennials and Generation Z workers.

Workers in the east Asian powerhouse economy already face some of the longest hours in the world – ranking fourth behind only Mexico, Costa Rica and Chile in 2021, according to the OECD – and death by overwork (“gwarosa”) is thought to kill scores of people every year.

Yet the government had backed the plan to increase the cap following pressure from business groups seeking a boost in productivity – until, that is, it ran into vociferous opposition from the younger generation and labor unions.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s senior secretary said Wednesday the government would take a new “direction” after listening to public opinion and said it was committed to protecting the rights and interests of Millennial, Generation Z and non-union workers.

Raising the cap had been seen as a way of addressing the looming labor shortage the country faces due to its dwindling fertility rate, which is the world’s lowest, and its aging population.

But the move was widely panned by critics who argued tightening the screw on workers would only make matters worse; experts frequently cite the country’s demanding work culture and rising disillusionment among younger generations as driving factors in its demographic problems.

It was only as recently as 2018 that, due to popular demand, the country had lowered the limit from 68 hours a week to the current 52 – a move that at the time received overwhelming support in the National Assembly.

The current law limits the work week to 40 hours plus up to 12 hours of compensated overtime – though in reality, critics say, many workers find themselves under pressure to work longer.

“The proposal does not make any sense… and is so far from what workers actually want,” said Jung Junsik, 25, a university student from the capital Seoul who added that even with the government’s U-turn, many workers would still be pressured to work beyond the legal maximum.

“My own father works excessively every week and there is no boundary between work and life,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is quite common in the workforce. Labor inspectors cannot watch every workplace 24/7. South Korean people will (remain) vulnerable to deadly overtime work.”

Pedestrians in downtown Seoul.Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

According to the OECD, South Koreans worked an average 1,915 hours in 2021, far above the OECD average of 1,716 and the American average of 1,767.

Long hours – alongside high levels of education and an increase in women entering the workforce – were once widely credited as fueling the country’s remarkable economic growth following the Korean War in the 1950s, when it went from being a poor economy to one of the world’s richest.

However, critics say the flipside to those long hours can be seen clearly in the scores of “gwarosa” cases – “death by overwork” – in which exhausted people pay with their lives through heart attacks, industrial accidents or sleep-deprived driving.

Haein Shim, a spokeswoman for the Seoul-based feminist group Haeil, said the country’s rapid growth and economic success had come at a cost and the proposal to extend working hours reflected the government’s “reluctance to acknowledge the realities of South Korean society.”

She said “isolation and lack of community stemming from long work hours and intense workdays” was already taking its toll on many workers and “insane work hours will further exacerbate challenges faced by Korean women.”

In addition to gwarosa cases, the country also has the highest suicide rate among developed nations, according to data from the National Statistical Office, she pointed out.

“It is crucial for the government (and companies) to address pressing issues that are already affecting lives,” Shim said. “The need for support and a healthy work life balance cannot be overlooked if we are to ensure the well-being of individuals with the reality of the highest suicide rate in the OECD.”

In 2017, the year before the government reduced the cap on working hours, hundreds of people died due to overwork, according to government data. Even when the limit was cut to 52 hours, cases of “gwarosa” continued to make the headlines. In 2020, labor unions said 14 delivery workers had died due to overwork, having sacrificed their mental health and well-being to keep the country going during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With previous reporting from CNN’s Jake Kwon and Alexandra Field

Sun March 19, 2023

 

Pakistan: Explaining The Resurgence Of Terrorist Violence – Analysis

 March 30, 2023 

By East Asia Forum

By Imtiaz Gul*

Terrorist attacks in Pakistan peaked in 2013, averaging just under four attacks a day, with nearly 2700 total fatalities. The latest trends suggest that 2023 may be worse, with almost 200 terror-related incidents and at least 340 fatalities by March.

Is Pakistan reliving the scary spectre of 2013? It may be — the last quarter of 2022 set the tone for the ensuing months, with December ending off the year as the deadliest month for Pakistan’s security forces in over a decade. Around 282 military and police personnel were among the 973 total fatalities in 2022.

At the centre of this violence is a new terror triad. It comprises the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the ethnic Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), the regional chapter of ISIS.

One of the immediate explanations for the unprecedented spate of terrorism is the unilateral cancellation of a year-old ceasefire on 28 November 2022 by the TTP, which blamed the government for ‘breaching commitments’ and criticised Pakistani security forces for their actions across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces that straddle Afghanistan.

The TTP demands the restoration of the special status of seven border regions that were annulled in May 2018 and the release of dozens of its detained members. It also wants the Pakistani army out of former no-go areas, presumably to establish its own Islamic caliphate. Islamabad brushed these demands aside as ‘non-negotiable’.

Faced with a ramped-up crackdown since early 2021, the defunct TTP has retreated into safe havens in Afghanistan, especially once the Afghan Taliban swept back to power in August 2021. The TTP leadership, including their chief Noor Wali Mehsud, presently enjoy shelter and hospitality in Afghanistan.

The presence of top TTP leadership in Afghanistan and the freedom they enjoy has become a sore point in talks with the Afghan Taliban regime. Islamabad is demanding punitive action against the TTP for violence in Pakistan. In media interviews, Mehsud denied his group was using Afghan soil for attacks on targets outside Afghanistan but did not dispute that his militants have been rampaging in Pakistan.

Kabul appears reluctant to take direct conclusive action against the TTP for multiple reasons. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is home to predominantly ethnic Pashtun tribes settled on both sides of the Pakistan–Afghanistan border and so is the TTP that draws its strength from the community in this region.

The Afghan Taliban, also a predominantly Pashtun group, boasts an ethnic and ideological affinity with the TTP. They partnered against the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of the War on Terror. It is no surprise that once Pakistan began hunting down terrorists in the border regions, most of the TTP top brass relocated to safe havens in Afghanistan.

Geopolitical factors may also be contributing to terrorism. Against the backdrop of intense US–China rivalry, the Afghanistan-based East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the ISKP publicly avowed to hit Chinese interests in the region. The ISKP boasts hundreds of publications, including some recent books and magazines, that specifically focus on China and its regional interests.

Beijing considers these groups Western proxies out to hurt Chinese interests. It views their killing of several Chinese nationals in Pakistan, almost all of them working on the multi-billion-dollar China–Pakistan Economic Corridor — a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative — in the same context. Beijing also questions why the United States revoked the designation of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a ‘terrorist organisation’ in November 2020, with Washington saying there was no credible evidence that the movement continues to exist.

An absence of cohesive civil–military action may also be a major contributing factor. It encourages the TTP to escalate their terror campaign, dubbed as ‘proxy terrorists’ by Pakistani officials.

Until early 2022, relentless military operations in the volatile border districts had been taking out scores of militants. As a result, terrorist violence decelerated in Pakistan by 85 per cent, according to private and Pakistan military estimates.

Critics attribute the resurgent violence by ISIS-linked ethnic Pashtun and Baloch terrorists and separatists to the Pakistani military’s involvement in national politics. In a televised speech on 27 November 2022, just days before his resignation, former Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa conceded that the military had been meddling in politics, despite a conscious decision in early 2021 to stop ‘unconstitutional interference’. Even after his retirement, Bajwa admitted to ‘managing’ Pakistani politicians, journalists and foreign affairs.

Even more critical than Bajwa’s admission is the unprecedented political and economic turbulence Pakistan has been experiencing for over a year, with the looming spectre of a default on government debt. The ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan through a controversial vote of no-confidence in April 2022 plunged the country into political uncertainty.

With Khan accusing Bajwa for facilitating his ousting, the military has never been as absorbed in politics as it has been since March 2022. Despite a public reiteration of ‘neutrality’, majority of Pakistanis hardly accord any credence to Khan’s claim, which was accompanied by unprecedented political instability and economic meltdown.

This has also taken its toll on the military’s ongoing campaign against terrorist outfits and apparently emboldened terrorists to ramp up pressure, primarily on members of Pakistan’s security apparatus. This pattern suggests that Pakistan is likely to endure more violence during 2023.

Members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Photo Credit: Social media

*About the author: Imtiaz Gul is Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad.

East Asia Forum

East Asia Forum is a platform for analysis and research on politics, economics, business, law, security, international relations and society relevant to public policy, centred on the Asia Pacific region. It consists of an online publication and a quarterly magazine, East Asia Forum Quarterly, which aim to provide clear and original analysis from the leading minds in the region and beyond.

It's Clear the GOP Is a Party of Death, Not Life

Here's a very long list that proves it.

Is there any area where Republicans will put the interests of life above making a buck or pandering to their base?
(Photo: Franz Aberham/iStock via Getty Images)

THOM HARTMANN
Common Dreams

Because they oppose a woman having the right to terminate a pregnancy, Republicans claim to be the Party of Life. In fact, they’re the Party of Death.

Seriously. Unless you’re white, straight, male, Christian, and morbidly rich, Republicans appear to want you and your children dead. In every instance, they will put a corporation or a rich white man’s making a buck over the life of anybody else.

— Toxic waste kills people, but Republicans have worked for decades to cripple the EPA and other agencies’ ability to regulate it. Trump alone rolled back over 100 environmental regulations that protected families and children.

— Being homeless kills people, but Republicans fight any sort of housing support, rent control, or laws that might inhibit foreign or Wall Street investors from buying up housing stock and jacking up housing costs.

— Guns kill more children in America than any other single cause, and Republicans want more of them, including weapons designed exclusively for use on the battlefield.

— Hunger kills children through weakening their immune systems and diminishing their ability to learn, but Republicans are so opposed to feeding children at school that one rightwing talk host recently argued that hungry kids should be sent to orphanages.

— Pregnancy kills women far more often than abortion (20.1 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies versus .4 deaths per 100,000 abortions), but Republicans are passing laws to force women and girls to endure childbirth whether they want to or not.

— Suicide kills more gay men than AIDS, and queer youth are four times more likely to kill themselves than their cis counterparts, but Republicans continue to stigmatize and attempt to criminalize homosexuality, being transgender, and even dressing in drag.

— Cancer kills people, but Republicans defend carcinogenic pesticides and other chemicals in our food supply.

— Civil wars kill people, but Republicans are openly advocating one today.

— Coups kill people, too; over 140 police officers were injured, three were killed, along with four civilians on that January 6th day that Republican President Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States.

— Children forced to work in meat packing plants and other dangerous places kill, but Arkansas’ Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders just proudly signed legislation loosening that state’s child labor laws and other Republican governors are considering the same.

— Back-alley abortions kill women, but Republicans in South Carolina are considering legislation to give the death penalty (your choice of lethal injection or firing squad) to women who travel to other states to get a legal abortion.

— Opioids kill people, but Republicans consistently oppose any funding for addiction treatment programs, “safe” places for addicts, and even anti-overdose drugs.

— Heart disease kills people, but Republicans fight every effort to reduce Americans’ consumption of trans-fats and saturated fats.

— Bacterial and viral infections kill people, but Republicans oppose any attempt to expand healthcare coverage for low-income people.

— Hate kills people, but Republicans most recently voted against anti-Asian hate-crimes legislation.

— Tearing children from their parents kills people — both through stress and suicide — but Republicans gleefully ripped thousands from their mothers’ arms and trafficked so many of them that around 1,000 are still missing.

— Stress from working full time but not being able to support your family kills people, but Republicans vigorously fight any effort to raise the minimum wage above $7.25 an hour.

— Cutting medications in half to save money kills people, but Republicans oppose any effort to reduce obscene drug prices.

— Deregulated trains kill people, but Republicans will only support more deregulation of the industry on top of all the rules Trump rolled back in 2018.

— Covid kills people, but Republicans were so anxious to turn a pandemic into a political opportunity that they embraced policies that led to over 300,000 unnecessary deaths, most (two to one) among people who trusted the GOP.

— Misogyny and domestic violence kills people, but Republicans have fought the Equal Rights Amendment for over 5 decades and 157 Republicans in the House voted against taking guns away from domestic abusers.

— Losing your home during an economic crisis kills people, but as suicides spiked during the 2008 Bush Crash, Republican Steve Mnuchin happily and perhaps illegally threw over 36,000 families out of their homes (and he was just the tip of the iceberg).

— Ignorance kills people, but Republicans want to ban books, fire teachers, and defund public schools.

— Student debt kills people, but Republicans fight any effort to reduce the school loan burden of millions of struggling Americans.

— Climate change kills people every single day, but Republicans continue to insist it’s not a problem or doesn’t even exist.

— Losing power during harsh weather kills people, but Republicans block every effort to shift America from big, centralized, for-profit power systems to local, community-based green power.

— Racism kills people, but Republicans have elevated it to the centerpiece of their so-called “anti-woke agenda.”

— Poverty kills children, but Republicans have blocked the Biden administration’s effort to maintain the child tax credit.

— Mass- and school-shooters kill people, but Republicans fight for killers’ right to continue to buy semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines, and “cop-killer” bullets.

— Speaking of cops, they can kill, too. Far too often, and it’s got to be really tough on the good cops. But Republicans fight any effort to professionalize our police in America. If anything, they work to the contrary.

— Health insurance payment denials kill senior citizens, but Republicans continue to defend George W. Bush’s “Medicare Advantage” scam.

— Autocracy and strongman government kills people, but Republicans embrace both over democracy, which today they are actively working against.

— Diabetes kills people, but for over 20 years Republicans have fought lowering the cost of insulin.

— Premature birth kills babies, but for 40 years Republicans have fought every effort to provide housing, food, or medical care to pregnant women and, most recently, fought efforts to even provide workplace accommodations.

— Advanced dental disease kills people, but Republicans have fought adding dental care to Medicare or Medicaid since 1965 and proudly continue to do so.

— Vigilantism kills people but Republican-led states around the county have passed “stand your ground” laws that effectively legalize murder.

— Not having a union kills people (workplace deaths are 54% higher in “right to work for less” states), but Republicans consistently oppose the right of workers to unionize.

Untreated mental health issues can kill people, but 205 Republicans just voted against a bill to expand school mental health services.

Is there any area where Republicans will put the interests of life above making a buck or pandering to their base? Outside of their affection for fertilized eggs, I can’t find a single one.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


THOM HARTMANN
Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of "The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream" (2020); "The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America" (2019); and more than 25 other books in print.


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Canada Makes Immigration Easier for Syrians, Turks

 Members of a family keep warm next to a fire as they follow a rescue team searching for their relatives among destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey, Feb. 15, 2023.

MONTREAL —

Canada on Saturday moved to ease immigration for Turkish and Syrian citizens already in the country, a month after an earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in the two countries.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6 killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey and thousands more in neighboring Syria, and devastated hundreds of thousands of buildings.

"Canada is committed to providing relief to those impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria," said Sean Fraser, minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

The new measures would allow, for example, people from those countries to apply for work permits that authorize foreigners to work for any employer for a specified period.

"Today we are introducing new measures that make it easier for Turkish and Syrian nationals to extend their stay in Canada and be with their families, while continuing to work and study in a safe environment," Fraser added.

The announcement comes 10 days after the U.N. urged the international community to speed up its settlement of Syrian refugees from areas affected by the earthquake in Turkey.

March 18, 2023 
Agence France-Presse

Syrian Women Find Strength In The Aftermath Of The Earthquake

Shahd and her colleague carry their medical bag through rubble to provide free medical care to survivors of the earthquakes

ByAli Haj Suleiman And Husam Hezaber
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 

Idlib, Syria – A month after devastating earthquakes struck northern Syria, Moufida Ghanem is mourning the loss of a son and the destruction of her home, which collapsed on her and her two boys, breaking her leg and killing her 18-year-old son.

Rescued from under the rubble with her 15-year-old son, Ali, the 40-year-old widow now finds herself having to cope with yet another loss. But she has been able to rise to every challenge so far

“For the past six years, I have been the mother and father at home,” she told Al Jazeera from a tented encampment in Azmarin, Idlib province. “Now I have to be a mother, father and brother for my son.”

When her recovery is complete, Ghanem said, she will look for work to try to provide a ​​”decent life” for what remains of her family.

A number of remarkable portraits of women’s strength are emerging from northwest Syria as it struggles to recover from the massive earthquakes.

Single or widowed women like Ghanem find themselves forced to live in overcrowded encampments where humanitarian organisations say they are at heightened risk of harassment and abuse.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has found that more than 60 percent of the surveyed households had a head of household defined as a person at risk, including female-headed households.

“Women and girls told us they do not feel safe going to the bathroom in overcrowded collective shelters,” Elias Abu Ata, communications offi Most available shelter options also lack essential facilities like bathrooms and toilets, which has a disproportionate effect on the safety of women and girls.

More than 8.8 million people have been affected by the quakes across Syria, according to United Nations figures, and more than 105,000 people have been displaced.

‘A sublime mission’

Last month’s devastation has made the roles women already play much more important.

About a month before the earthquake, Iman Abdel Razzaq, 44, had quit her job as a paediatric nurse to undergo vascular surgery on her foot. But when the mother of four saw the scale of destruction and the needs that came with it, she set up a medical centre to treat people free of charge, partnering with a number of her colleagues who pitched in all the medical equipment they owned.


“The situation in Jandaris was apocalyptic, people were terrified, children were crying everywhere and we could hear the moans and groans coming from under the houses that had fallen on the families living there,” Abdel Razzaq told Al Jazeera.

“I was afraid after the earthquake, but I only thought of how I could help people,” she said, adding that their clinic receives at least 80 children daily in addition to men and women who need care and some pregnant women who need emergency deliveries.

Iman and her colleagues have managed to keep the project going from the day they set it up, right after the earthquakes. “Our work is voluntary and individual as we strive to provide free healthcare to people who need it. We rely on individual donations to buy more supplies for the clinic and haven’t received support from any organisations or authorities,” she said.

Asked whether the work ever overwhelms her, she answered: “I gain my strength from working because I consider medical and humanitarian work to be a sublime mission, it is saving lives and helping people.”

‘My son asks me if the next shock will kill us’

The female health professionals in northwest Syria are very busy taking care of others, and they also have to deal with the trauma their own children went through.

“When I come home, the first thing my seven-year-old son asks me is if we will die when another shock occurs,” Shahd al-Abdullah, a 29-year-old medical services volunteer with the Syria Civil Defence, a rescue group operating in opposition-held parts of Syria also known as the White Helmets, told Al Jazeera.

The IRC survey found two in three children showed signs of psychological distress, such as increased crying, sadness and nightmares, with more than half of the households interviewed saying their children were having nightmares.

Al-Abdullah used to live in Saraqeb, east of Idlib, but moved to Qorqanya to live with her parents after being displaced by war in 2019.

Her mother had woken up when the earthquake hit, and started shouting at everyone to get out of the house, al-Abdullah recalled, so she grabbed her son in her arms and made her way out into the street, surrounded by the bewildered faces of her neighbours.

“I waited a little for the aftershocks to calm down then I left my son with my parents and headed to the Civil Defence centre. As I walked along, I was astounded at the level of destruction and the number of people out in the street in the rain and freezing wind; none of them knew what to do,” she said.

Because the scale was so huge, the Civil Defence volunteers were not confined to working in their original roles. “My specialisation is emergency care, but I was working with the search and rescue teams to find people stuck under the rubble as well as offering them emergency care at the medical centres,” al-Abdullah explained.

“One of the things that happened that I won’t be able to forget is that one day we rescued a pregnant woman from under the rubble. She was still alive when we put her in the ambulance so she could go to the hospital.

“She grabbed my hand and said: ‘Don’t leave me, I’m frightened for the baby.’ I was trying to calm her down the whole way to the hospital but sadly once we arrived we realised that she had lost the baby. In addition to that, she had extreme injuries to her bones that resulted in her paralysis,” al-Abdullah said sadly.

The Civil Defence teams have been working nonstop since the earthquakes, and among the things that Shahd and her colleagues do is to head out to the camps to offer medical care to the survivors living there. “We try to reassure these people, some of whom live in terrible conditions, that the Civil Defence is here for them and will not abandon them and that we will help as much as we can,” al-Abdullah continued.

“We have proven, as women, that we can work in the most difficult conditions and in all fields. Women now work in the Civil Defence, and in the medical and humanitarian fields, they’re making a difference everywhere, in most civil society organisations,” she said.

‘Indescribable feelings’

“When I saw the destruction that impacted so many of the people of Jinderes and Afrin, I was deeply affected and really wanted to help somehow, no matter how small my contribution would be,” 22-year-old artist Yasmine Khalil told Al Jazeera.

For her, healing the psychological wounds left by the tragedy is the most important thing.

“I only have my brushes and my colours to help people with, so I started working on paintings that showed the painful reality we were living in Jandaris,” she said. The paintings show the destroyed buildings as smoke and dust rise.

“In one of the paintings, a woman is crying and screaming as she emerges from the rubble clutching her dead son to her chest.”

Yasmine wanted to sell her paintings to raise money to help shelter or support at least one family in the stricken area. So she held a live auction online and ended up raising nearly 6,000 euros ($6,300).

“My dream had been to sell all my paintings to raise even just enough money to help one affected family. I could never have imagined that I would end up raising this much. This money that was raised could help set up tents to shelter nearly 50 families.

“My feelings are indescribable,” she said. “With my brush and colours, I managed to contribute to the relief of the afflicted.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com