Afrah Jamal

Published by Global Affairs? / Oct 2017 Written Early Sept 2017 Admittedly, it is an unusual sight - China scrambling to issue clarifications and placate its closest ally in the aftermath of the BRICS Summit. China does not make foreign policy blunders, dictate strategy or put its stamp on statements without reading the fine print. Neither does it subscribe to the cowboy style - public shaming, threats, excessive use of carrots / sticks, blackmail – bluster. Yet the declaration issued at the BRICS annual summit held at Xiamen that singled out Pakistan based terror groups led to an ‘et tu China’ moment and saw Beijing in ‘damage control mode’. To review what led to this dramatic break from tradition means that China’s perspective be considered and Pakistan’s attempts at extricating itself from a tangled web of proxies be factored in the narrative alongside its successes and failures, to balance the scales. It may also be a good time to commence image / nation building efforts w...

Published in Global Affairs / March 2017. Written / Sep 2016 . Third world nations that remain daggers drawn have yet to ascend to that stage of nirvana marked by regional cooperation and economic reforms; the kind that defines Sino - US relations for instance. Former US ambassador to China described their emerging relationship as “controlled enmity.” It had remained on course despite Washington’s concerns over the militarization of South China Sea, or indictment of Chinese hackers by a US court. The world’s biggest economy and the largest US foreign creditor and the superpower had learnt to prioritize and steer their relations towards a semblance of normality. No one really knows which direction they will take under a Donald Trump Presidency. But economic considerations trumped personal differences at the time. And now judging from the list of banned nations devised by the White House where some obvious names have been pointedly left out – at least for the time being, it still ...