The Strategos

The term Middle East originated in British India offices in 1850s and became famous after US Naval strategist Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan started using the term in his research papers. As of now, Middle East is used interchangeably with Near East. The term is said to have originated because of the region’s distance from the European cities of London and Paris. From an Asian perspective, however, it is the region located on the Western periphery of the continent. It also includes the states in the Northern belt of the African Continent. The term ‘broader middle east’ gained ground after the 9/11 attack to add the territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Middle Eastern framework. Middle East has been home to the cradle of civilizations, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations developed in this very region on the banks of mighty rivers such as Nile, Tigris and Euphrates. It is also the birth place of three of the most prominent religions followed around the world namely Ch...

Kenneth Waltz in his book, “ Theory of International Politics ” showed how reductionist theories fail in describing the international politics. How states as units have little influence over what transpires in world politics. Waltz instead proposed a systemic theory and explained how the international structure is wired to create a self-help mechanism. In his systemic approach, Waltz takes a realist world view and finds global order to be ‘anarchic’. Waltz describes world order in terms of ordering principles, hierarchies and capabilities. On the other hand, Alexander Wendt takes middle ground in building his constructivist approach. While he agrees on the absence of any central governing authority leading to ‘anarchy’ in the international order, Wendt differs on how Anarchy unfolds. Instead of taking an essentially self-help view, he argues “ Anarchy is what states make of it ”. For him, all international politics sprouts from social interactions among states. Kenneth Walt...

“Child care options, internet access and extra living space leave a gulf between rich and poor in coping with disruptions to school and work.” (NYT).  T here is a general agreement that the standard of living has improved world over in the last century. Arguably, Capitalism has brought millions out of poverty and continues to do so. The agreement takes root from the fact that; in the pre-industrial world, vast majority of the human species lived at subsistence level. Industrialization has led to prosperity and well-being which are evident in the improved standard of living around the world. However, the capitalist forces draw flak from a variety of critics. Among them, Marxists make the most promising arguments, delving deep into the problems the present day capitalist world order faces. Marxists argue; the prosperity gained out of the industrial revolution has not been distributed ‘legitimately’. The statement from NYT mentioned above directs our attention towards a numbe...

The Ottoman Empire, at its zenith spanned across three continents namely Asia, Africa and Europe. The Ottomans controlled the Mediterranean waters and the lands on its periphery including Spain on the west and modern day Turkey on the East. The name ‘Ottoman’ has its history in the founder of the dynasty, Osman 1, ‘Ottoman’ being the anglicized version of Osman. The Ottomans established themselves formally as an empire with the fall of the Byzantine capital Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, in 1453. Now, to me, The City of Istanbul attracts. I am not sure about the source of that attraction but I believe the history and the culture of the city play a significant part substantiating that attraction apart from Bollywood’s portrayal of the city. Istanbul has a very special geographical status in terms of the modern day nation-state arrangement of territories across continents. The city cannot be discussed in isolation with the Ottoman Empire and its history. The story of the...

India and Pakistan have more in common than any other pair of nations in the world. Not only do they speak the same languages, practice similar cultures and customs, cook identical cuisines but also share the same legacy of British imperialism which lasted around 200 years. It is for the common cultural legacy that Bollywood is as famous in Pakistan as Pakistani daily soaps in India. With all these pleasent similarities, there is yet another one which is anything but pleasing. Both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons and given the status of the bitter relationship between the two countries, situation can take really ugly turns. It is essential to mention these commons among the two countries as we analyze Indo-Pak relationship through the Constructivist lens but before we do that it will be helpful to understand it from other perspectives. For example, A realist will argue in terms of number of weapons India and Pakistan operate to bring down each other. They will speak of...

At the time of typing, the casualties due to the novel corona virus pandemic have reached 34,806 with 735,041 infected around the world. The death toll in Italy alone is 10,779, highest anywhere around the globe. It has already claimed 29 lives in India. In India, Economists say, the pandemic has already done more damage to the Indian economy than Demonetization did in more than three years. In an interview to Karan Thapar, India’s first chief statistician, Dr Pronab Sen when asked about the severity of crises that may follow the spread of the virus, did not rule out the possibility of large scale food riots in the country. If that comes as a surprise, you have just not been paying attention. Nonetheless, the governments at the centre and in states are well aware of the destitute conditions more than 400 million of Indians live under. PM Modi may well share the apprehensions Dr Sen expressed in his interview. In what may seem to be adequate to some, the Prime Minister in add...

COVID-19 has brought catastrophic trouble to Europe. The outbreak is now being ranked only second to the world wars. Unsurprisingly, the world looks at the problem with its focus at finding the core of it. The genesis of the devil called Corona. As usual, President Trump is taking lead assigning the blame. US President Donald Trump has mentioned of COVID-19 as ‘Chinese Virus' to bring discomfort to many.   Those in support of Trump have given examples of the Spanish Flu in 1918 that claimed anywhere between 20-50 million lives. The Spanish flu infected an estimated 500 million people, which was approximately one-third of the then global population. Examples of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome also connected it to the territory it originated from. Those supporting China have the current global order based on free market capitalism to blame Corona upon. It is for them the right moment to strike, to dilute all the gains and concentrate upon the flaws that US led current gl...