Qassem Suleimani The Shadow Commander

Beautiful, beautiful read on Qassem Suleiman, the shadow commander. A very long read - I did it over 2 days in 3/4 bits. But well worth the effort.

Through the Newyorker

"Suleimani took command of the Quds Force fifteen years ago, and in that time he has sought to reshape the Middle East in Iran’s favor, working as a power broker and as a military force: assassinating rivals, arming allies, and, for most of a decade, directing a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Suleimani for his role in supporting the Assad regime, and for abetting terrorism. And yet he has remained mostly invisible to the outside world, even as he runs agents and directs operations. “Suleimani is the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today,” John Maguire, a former C.I.A. officer in Iraq, told me, “and no one’s ever heard of him.”"

Observations on Indian Foreign Policy over the years

Splitting the original post into 2 so there is logical structure. Syria and India are as different as chalk and cheese and putting both inside the same post makes little sense.

So, here goes.

Been reading up on a lot of op-eds recently. Lots of reasons behind it... general insatiable urge to lap up on why things are happening so crazily at the international front, why India did the policy decisions they have [or the lack of policies for that matter] till date and such. Another major reason is also the super forecasting that is required for the good judgment project that I am part of. [GJP is the link in case you want to know more on the same]

Was searching around for stuff and got a wealth of information:

Across Borders by JN.Dixit. he was an ex-foreign sec himself during the '90's and apparently this is a reference text book for foreign policy in the Indian Universities! Its India centric and broadly describes about what drove Indian FP from 1947-1998.

[Across borders in amazon]

I didnt realise Firstpost has good authors. This is genuinely good for the points that are mentioned. Not all are absolutely valid, mind you. But it is worth reading up. Firstpost

All of Praveen Swami's articles here

On the same note, my earlier post on the same topic with references to stellar links here

India Pakistan Relations: Perspectives

Brilliant read on the Indo-Pak relations.

Brookings essay by William Dalrymple

More stuff on what transpired in 2002 and why we recalled the Indian Ambassador can be read here

Aah... the advantages of doing read ups, thanks to being part of the Good Judgment Project... Strenuous... but lovely to do all this.