IDR Blog
Rawalpindi’s Deteriorating Public Image: Who’s to Blame?
The top brass of Pakistan army regularly congregate at the military’s General Headquarters [GHQ] in Rawalpindi to discuss various defence related issues in a confab referred to as Corps Commanders’ Conferences. On conclusion of these deliberations, the Pakistan army’s media wing, Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR], issues a press...
National Security and Role of Self-Reliance in Military Capability
Introduction Epictetus, the philosopher wrote, we can not choose our external circumstances but we can always choose how we respond to them. It is the role of leaders to ensure our security from external circumstances and inspire people and institutions to preserveour sovereignty. There is a critical linkage of national security with economic...
The Irony Of West's 'Democracy' Memos To India
What to make of a spate of articles in Western media and research papers by think tanks there about democratic ‘backsliding’ in India, just before the general election? While such articles have appeared regularly ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, what’s striking is how this new flow of...
Citizenship: Concept and Consequences
The term “citizenship” is usually used either in academia or news as a synonym of nationality and national affiliation (from the Anglo-Saxon, West European perspective followed by the New World, in fact, as a synonym of state). However, “citizenship” as a concept is essentially a product of and used in political philosophy and...
“Land of Israel” and Palestine: The First Phase of the Creation of Der Judenstaat
The historical background of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes back to 1917 (the Balfour Declaration) and the establishment of the British protectorate over Palestine (the Palestine Mandate) after WWI with its provision for a national home for the Jews, although formally not to be at the expense of the local inhabitants – the...