Irshad Ahmad Mughal

The compass of international relations is in constant motion, its needle swinging between North and South, East and West in an endless reconfiguration of global power. For decades following World War II, this movement appeared frozen in a bipolar standoff…

by Irshad Ahmad Mughal and Dr. Qurat-al-Ain Rana While social media has revolutionized global connectivity, its darker consequences demand urgent attention. What began as a platform for sharing ideas has morphed into a dangerous catalyst for physical, religious, and economic…

The bitter river of hostility between India and Pakistan flows not from the natural springs of people’s hearts, but from the carefully constructed dams of political elites. Like colonial masters of old, today’s rulers in both nations have perfected the…

(by Irshad Ahmad Mughal and Dr. Qurat ul-Ain Rana, a Ph.D in Sociology teaching in various universities as visiting faculty in various universities in Pakistan.) The lands now called Pakistan and India were once woven together by shared history, culture,…

The deadly missile exchange between Iran and Israel—and to some extent, the U.S.— may have ended. Every party claims victory, and perhaps they should, for in truth, all are losers and all are winners. With no ground invasion, it’s easy…

The wisdom of an old Punjabi proverb—”While busily searching elsewhere for the thief, I looked back and found the donkey tied under the banyan tree”—rings painfully true in today’s world. It perfectly captures the absurdity of the recent Iran-Israel conflict,…

The ancient art of storytelling through animal fables once served as humanity’s moral compass, with philosophers and saints using tales of “talking beasts” to counsel rulers against tyranny. Yet in our modern era, where abstract academic theories dominate education, we’ve…

As I scroll through my phone, absorbing the relentless updates about the Iran-Israel conflict, I’m confronted by images that blur the line between reality and simulation. Towering buildings reduced to rubble, missiles streaking across skies like something out of a…

Aesop’s fable The Wolf and the Lamb tells a simple but timeless story: A lamb drinks water from a river when a wolf arrives, accusing it of muddying the stream. The lamb points out that the water flows from the wolf’s side,…

One positive action of Donald Trump’s administration was facilitating a ceasefire between Pakistan and India, preventing both countries from escalating into destruction—similar to what is now happening between Iran and Israel. If we set aside debates over who initiated contact…