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Salman Rafi Sheikh

Salman Rafi Sheikh

New Eastern Outlook

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Putin's Beijing Stopover and the Alliance Trump Couldn't Crack

Putin’s Beijing Stopover and the Alliance Trump Couldn’t Crack The back-to-back summits in Beijing revealed not only China’s growing diplomatic...

thursday 40

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Cricket diplomacy is helping India and Pakistan play on a sticky wicket

Cricket diplomacy is helping India and Pakistan play on a sticky wicket

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17.05.2026 30

Nikkei Asian Review

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The Contest to Redefine the Middle East

The Contest to Redefine the Middle East The Middle East is not being remade; it is being contested widely and publicly. The emerging alignment between...

16.05.2026 60

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Why did Washington impose sanctions on China before the Trump-Xi summit?

Why did Washington impose sanctions on China before the Trump-Xi summit? New U.S. sanctions against Chinese companies just before Donald Trump’s...

12.05.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The UAE and the Unravelling of Gulf Consensus

The UAE and the Unravelling of Gulf Consensus The United Arab Emirates’ exit from OPEC is not a technocratic adjustment to oil policy; it is a...

06.05.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Iran War Is Accelerating America’s Decline in Southeast Asia

Iran War Is Accelerating America’s Decline in Southeast Asia Washington’s war with Iran may be unfolding thousands of miles away, but in Southeast...

02.05.2026 90

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The Gulf’s Illusion of Security Has Collapsed

The Gulf’s Illusion of Security Has Collapsed The Gulf Cooperation Council’s model was built on a comforting illusion: that oil wealth could fund...

25.04.2026 70

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran Is the Pretext—China Is the Target

In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran Is the Pretext—China Is the Target The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, formally directed against Iran, in fact...

21.04.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Iran war and the new world order

Iran war and the new world order Trump’s war on Iran hasn’t just redrawn battle lines; it has fractured the very architecture of the post-Second...

16.04.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Criminalizing cooperators, Pakistan can never win wars against the Taliban

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10.04.2026 90

Nikkei Asian Review

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Hormuz: A War the US Couldn’t Win

Hormuz: A War the US Couldn’t Win The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran has temporarily reduced tensions around the Strait of...

09.04.2026 70

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The End of NATO

The war between the United States and Iran has become not only a military crisis in the Middle East but also a turning point for the transatlantic...

06.04.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The Gulf’s Delusion: Why "Destroying Iran" Will Backfire

The Gulf’s Delusion: Why “Destroying Iran” Will Backfire The Gulf is asking for a war it cannot win and a peace it cannot survive. Across...

31.03.2026 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Power Without Command: The Iran War and the Limits of American Primacy

Power Without Command: The Iran War and the Limits of American Primacy For decades, American dominance rested on a simple reality: when Washington...

27.03.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The American Fantasy of Iranian Surrender

The American Fantasy of Iranian Surrender What if the state that claims global military supremacy is now confronting a conflict it cannot win on its...

21.03.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

From “Making America Great Again” to “Making Israel Great Again”

From “Making America Great Again” to “Making Israel Great Again” The new escalation between the US, Israel, and Iran challenges the official...

13.03.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Desert Duel: Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s Struggle for Gulf Supremacy

Desert Duel: Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s Struggle for Gulf Supremacy For years, Saudi Arabia and the UAE appeared as twin pillars of a new Arab...

06.03.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Why the US and Israel Want to Destroy Iran

Why the US and Israel Want to Destroy Iran The ongoing joint US–Israel assault on Iran is not just another chapter in the endless Middle East cycle...

01.03.2026 150

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Maximum Pressure, Minimum Results: Washington’s Iran Reality Check

Maximum Pressure, Minimum Results: Washington’s Iran Reality Check The United States is again talking to Iran. That simple fact, coming after months...

28.02.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

What can the “middle powers” do?

What can the “middle powers” do? American dominance is fading, but no new hegemon is rising to—or even willing to—replace it. The world is...

21.02.2026 150

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

How India Is Hedging in a Fragmented Global Order

How India Is Hedging in a Fragmented Global Order India’s recent diplomatic choreography has been misread as a geopolitical conversion: first a...

15.02.2026 150

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

America’s Self-Defeating National Defense Strategy

09.02.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

What the collapse of the world order means for Asia

03.02.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Trump’s “America First” ends NATO

27.01.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Afghanistan and its neighbors need border security cooperation

23.01.2026 200

Nikkei Asian Review

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Patterns of Force: The Middle East on the Brink

21.01.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

‘America First’ is the Dawn of New American Imperialism

15.01.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Why Washington Is Betting on Latin America’s New Right

10.01.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Venezuela Regime Change Will Bite America in the Long Run

04.01.2026 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Modi’s reception of Putin defies Washington

27.12.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Bondi Beach and the Afterlives of War: Why ISIS* Never Truly Disappeared

19.12.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The National Security Strategy of a Nervous Superpower

16.12.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Washington’s ‘Waiver On, Waiver Off’ Game at Chabahar

09.12.2025 80

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Limits of the US-Saudi Strategic Ties

03.12.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The Tajikistan attack shows Afghanistan can’t be left alone

29.11.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

A Gaza Plan that Sidelines the Palestinian State

25.11.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The Monroe Doctrine Under Siege: America’s new war in the backyard

18.11.2025 70

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

In Busan, China did not just stand firm—it watched America blink

16.11.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Behind the Dances and Deals: Trump’s Quiet Pivot in Asia

11.11.2025 90

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Arab Realism: The not-so-quiet struggle for survival

03.11.2025 90

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Can the US military stabilize Palestine after the war?

29.10.2025 70

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Türkiye-US revival is the triumph of transactionalism

25.10.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Pakistan must see reality and build diplomatic ties with Kabul

23.10.2025 70

Nikkei Asian Review

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Washington’s “second coming” to Asia

19.10.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Between the Lines of Conflict: Pakistan, Afghanistan & the Geopolitics of Shifting Sands

13.10.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Blowback: Trump’s Trade Deals Are Falling Apart in Southeast Asia

08.10.2025 50

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Trump Wants Europe to fight its own conflict

04.10.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Why the US has sanctioned the Chabahar Port in Iran

27.09.2025 100

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

How Southeast Asia is using military ties to balance global powers

22.09.2025 150

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh

The War on Iran is not over

16.09.2025 90

New Eastern Outlook

Salman Rafi Sheikh