US-AFGHANISTAN: Civilian Casualties May Surge As Well

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, marking the start of what many believe will be an escalation that will ultimately see the U.S. forces there double.

PAKISTAN: Militants Make Aid Work Risky

The kidnapping of John Solecki of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees(UNHCR)in Quetta, Balochistan province seems to confirm the perception of international humanitarian organisations that aid work in Pakistan is becoming increasingly hazardous.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: New Beginning Uncertain – Top Analysts

Almost three months after the terrorist attacks on India's commercial hub of Mumbai, which soured relations between India and Pakistan, the prospect for renewed cooperation between the nuclear-armed neighbours looks dim, two eminent analysts from the region conceded at a policy dialogue here.

PAKISTAN/INDIA: Taliban As Common Enemy

Since being elected to office five months ago, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has often declared that Pakistan's single biggest challenge stems from ‘religious' militants.

POLITICS-US: New Bid to Ban Indiscriminate Weapons

Leaders of a wide variety of national organisations and Congress are putting pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to reconsider his predecessor's policies of allowing the use, transfer and production of weapons that have been shown to indiscriminately maim and kill civilians.

POLITICS-US: Afghanistan Pressures Beget Dubious Alliances

Central Asia is shaping up to be an early test of Barack Obama's foreign policy, as the increased demands of the war in Afghanistan force his administration to decide how far to accommodate or to pressure the region's autocratic governments.

PAKISTAN: Bracing For More Drone Attacks

On Jan 23, days after Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States, a series of missiles slammed into Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border - in continuation of Washington’s policy of targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban elements regardless of sovereignty issues.

U.S.: More Troops, More Worries, Less Consensus on Afghanistan

Even as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to deploy more military forces to Afghanistan - what he has called "the central front" in former President George W. Bush's "global war on terror" - a consensus on overall U.S. strategy there remains elusive.

POLITICS-US: Top Defence Chiefs Vow Focus on Afghanistan

Both the top civilian and military leadership of the U.S. Department of Defence had busy days on Tuesday, fielding topically varied questions on their new policy priorities since President Barack Obama took office one week ago.

U.S.: Obama Picks Israel-Arab, Afghanistan-Pakistan Negotiators

In his first major diplomatic moves since his inauguration, U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday named two accomplished negotiators, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Amb. Richard Holbrooke, as special envoys to deal with the Israel-Arab conflict and "the deteriorating situation" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, respectively.

PAKISTAN: Obama Inauguration Brings Hope, Scepticism

As billions of people around the world tuned in to participate electronically in Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, the message of hope that he symbolised resonated with Pakistanis - though some shrugged it off as part of a system that is unlikely to change.

INDIA: ‘No Reason For Unease at Obama Presidency’

As much of the world jubilates in the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as the President of the United States of America, Indian diplomats are uneasy about what his presidency would entail for relations between the two countries.

BOOKS-US: Wounded Veterans Treated as an Afterthought

"But the [George W.] Bush administration was never seriously interested in helping veterans. The sorry state of care for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is not an accident. It's on purpose."

INDIA: ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ Approach to Pakistan

Exasperated by what it regards as "a continuing pattern of evasiveness and denial in Pakistan's response to the terrorist attack on Mumbai", India seems to be fashioning a two-pronged approach towards Islamabad to get it to act firmly against terrorist networks based on its soil.

CULTURE-PAKISTAN: Artistes Caught in Crossfire

Arson attacks and killings have shut down girls’ schools and brought a thriving entertainment industry to its knees in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

POLITICS-US: Vets Health System in Need of Triage

Eighteen U.S. veterans kill themselves every day. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas. One in every three homeless men in the United States has put on a uniform and served his country. On any given night, the U.S. government estimates 200,000 veterans sleep on the street.

U.S.: Bush Foreign Policy Legacy Widely Seen as Disastrous

While in a farewell press conference Monday George W. Bush once again expressed the belief that his eight-year presidency, particularly his foreign-policy record, will be vindicated by history, the portents are not particularly good.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram, Worse Than Guantanamo?

While millions know that the administration of George W. Bush has left Barack Obama with the job of closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, relatively few are aware that the new president will also face a similar but far larger dilemma 7,000 miles away.

PAKISTAN: Nightmare for Civilians Uprooted by Conflict

"We are in hell! No electricity, no clean drinking water! This is no life, we were better off at home!" fumes Arjumand Khanum, a refugee from Bajaur Agency, on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

INDIA: Seeking China's Support in Dealing With Pakistan

As the Pakistani government digs its heels in against India’s demands for action on the suspected masterminds of the November terrorist strikes in Mumbai, the Indian foreign policy establishment is looking to China and other regional powers, besides the United States, for support.

SPECIAL SERIES: Is a U.S.-Iran Deal on the Middle East Possible?

Would a negotiated agreement between Iran and the Barack Obama administration be feasible if Obama sent the right signals? The answer one gets from Iranian officials and think tank analysts is, "Yes, but..."