China’s Belt and Road Won’t Readily Reach Afghanistan
July 15th, 2021
Via Asia Times, a look at Beijing’s hope to connect a Taliban-led Afghanistan with neighboring Pakistan overlooks rising and lethal resistance to the scheme: When suspected militants killed nine Chinese nationals in a blast that sent a bus plunging into a high mountain ravine in northern Pakistan, it marked the latest in a rising string of […]
Read more »Can Afghanistan Be Part of An Integrated Central Asia?
July 12th, 2021
Via National Interest, a look at how a more integrated and cohesive Central Asia that includes Afghanistan will bring do more than anything else in sight to make Afghanistan stable and predictable: For many in the West and worldwide, the five countries of Central Asia remain a mystery, and their role in world affairs unknown. Yet […]
Read more »Kabul New City: Afghanistan’s Forgotten Development Dream
June 8th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, a look at a planned Afghanistan mega-project that was put on hold under the previous government and, which if not kickstarted soon, Kabul city could be left uninhabitable: Kabul New City (KNC) was intended to be home for 3 million by 2040, one and a half times larger than the existing Afghan capital. […]
Read more »China’s Economic Interest In Afghanistan After The U.S Withdrawal
June 7th, 2021
Via Modern Diplomacy, a report on China’s economic interest in Afghanistan: As a large and emerging peaceful power, China needs peace and stability in its neighborhood. Because uncertainty has negative effects on Afghanistan, while the emergence and realization of the “Chinese Dream 2050” requires a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. Afghanistan has long faced serious terrorism […]
Read more »An Afghanistan At Peace Could Connect South and Central Asia
May 24th, 2021
Via The Atlantic Council, a look at Afghanistan’s potential as the “hub” of South and Central Asia: Over the past forty years of conflicts, Afghanistan’s potential as a contributor to development and prosperity in Asia has gone unrealized. If it were a stable neighbor, as the current Afghan peace process is meant to make it, […]
Read more »How Afghanistan’s President Helped His Brother Secure Lucrative Mining Deals with a U.S. Contractor
April 29th, 2021
Via OCCRP, a report on President Ghani’s involvement in a special mining license issued to his family member: With the stroke of a pen, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani put his sibling into the chromite business with a tarnished U.S. defense contractor. Afghanistan’s crags and valleys hold at least a trillion dollars’ worth of minerals, first […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.