Photo Source: Foreign Policy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front The historic ceasefire in Afghanistan in June 2018 was a respite for men with arms from both sides. It allowed them to visit their homes and family. Since this brief interlude of peace, people hoped for a longer ceasefire, so that both parties involved could think of peace and reconciliation in the longer term. The calm of Eid-ul-Fitr gave an impression of the peace that Afghanistan could have in the future. The three-day truce was something historical because it happened nearly after a decade. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan, despite the highs and lows of Taliban insurgency, it finally seems that the Taliban is dominant in the country, exerting its rebel and political influence. The US, on the other hand, cannot think of wiping out Taliban, sooner or later. The only way out right now is a sustained political dialogue. Compromises have to be made by either of the parties involved. But...

Photo Source: Crises Group By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront At one point in time, the war of words between North Korea and the United States gave looming dangers of a possible armed escalation between the two countries. The development of a nuclear arsenal in North Korea was met with several diplomatic challenges before. Trump, at one point in time, believed that his nuclear button was ‘more powerful’. The US is already in the arms race for acquiring supersonic missiles, notorious for travelling faster than the speed of sound that could hit its target faster than ICBM missiles. Trump once called Kim Jong Un ‘a madman’, while as Kim ensured of destroying any United States aircrafts such as B1-B Lancer before they entered the North Korean airspace. The war of words had put millions of lives at stake. At one point in time, it seemed almost inevitable that North Korea would hit the US territory first. The US didn't have the first to attack policy anyway. It d...

Photo Source: Amnesty By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front Whenever there has been a military junta ruling a country, and making amendments to the constitution, a repression is almost inevitable. The regime in Thailand seems one of those brutish examples: the Thai regime had attained power in May 2014. Before this, 2006 military coup made news headlines. A year later, in March 2015, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-Ocha replaced the Martial Law Act of 1914, with Section 44, which made him enjoy full impunity, without any accountability from the judiciary, administration and the legislature. The Thai government, in their official narratives, argues about the freedom, they have given to their people, through the constitution, most notably, in the 1997 amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees an addition of forty rights, as compared to fewer rights that were drafted in the 1932 Constitution. However, many countries including the United States, Japan, the European Union...

Photo Source: Sky News By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front Jordan has witnessed its worst political unrest in five years, in May 2018. The public anger sums it all, which reflects a prolonged frustration. There were chantings of local folklore and slogans, similar of what was heard during the 2011 Arab Spring such as "the people want the fall of the government" and "I strike today to live tomorrow." This fury of protestors has prompted King Abdullah II to oust the current Prime Minister, Hani Mulki through a decree from the royal palace. The main difference between 2018 protests and the protests in 2011 is that during the Arab Spring, the far-flung tribes were at the centre stage in holding the protests. This time around, city dwellers coming from Irbid, Aqaba, Al-Zarqa and Salt, in addition to the capital have recorded a high participation. Omar Razzaz will replace Mulki, a Harvard educated former World Bank Official previously based ...

Photo Source: Wall Street Journal By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front In the fertile Middle Belt of Nigeria, Benue State has long been celebrated as the nation’s food basket, yet it has also become the epicentre of one of Africa’s most troubling internal conflicts. Within the village of Aya Mbalom, Christian farmers and Muslim Fulani herdsmen once lived in relative harmony, their livelihoods tied to the land and its rhythms. That fragile coexistence has unravelled in recent years, replaced by violence, displacement, and destruction. The April 2018 attack on St Ignatius Catholic Church, where gunmen killed two priests and at least seventeen worshippers, marked a grim turning point. Reuters and Premium Times reported the incident as part of a wider wave of assaults across Benue, underscoring the vulnerability of rural communities. Joe Parkinson of the Wall Street Journal later described Nigeria’s farmer–herder clashes as cumulatively more lethal than Boko Haram’s insurgency, ...