U.S. representatives are reportedly near a deal with the Taliban that would allow us to withdraw almost half of the 14,000 troops we have there in exchange for promises by the Taliban that include divorcing themselves from al-Qaeda, ISIS, and…

The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, has a strategic opportunity: to seek rapprochement now with archenemy Pakistan. Following the recent attack on a police convoy in Pulwama in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary police,…

This past October, the Pakistani Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman who had spent eight years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy. Following her acquittal, extremist groups across Pakistan, including the…

There are many places to look for evidence of how the war in Afghanistan is going. Some are even in Afghanistan. On 18 October, a Taliban attacker penetrated a provincial governor’s compound where top U.S. commanders and Afghan security leaders…

On October 16, 2001, Army Special Forces entered Afghanistan by helicopter, the first U.S. troops on the ground there since the 9/11 attacks. Since then, thousands of Americans have fought there, and over two thousand have died. By almost every…

Pakistan, where the army has ruled about half the time since independence from Britain in 1947, will continue with its third civilian government during the past ten years. In its general election of last week, the country has just given…

If Clint Eastwood were an adviser to President Xi Jinping of China, he might quote himself as Inspector “Dirty Harry” Callahan in Magnum Force: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” China is now learning the hard way that the…

The profane long has coexisted with the sacred. During earlier ages the secular authorities often sought to protect established faiths by punishing blasphemy. Even where organized religion is dying, the rule sometimes lives on. In October, Ireland will vote on…

Pakistan has been a foreign policy enigma for decades. A U.S. ally charged with harboring terrorists and nuclear proliferation, it works both sides of the fence — doing just enough to placate the U.S. and receive military and civilian aid,…