The present study identifies major internal challenges in the way of effective water resource management in Pakistan at micro, meso, and macro levels through a semi-systematic literature review (SSLR) method. The review found 24 major internal challenges to the management of Pakistan’s water resources that were synthesised into eight categories: economic and financial; information; policy, legal and regulatory; institutional; technical; awareness; social, cultural, and behavioural; and mega trends. The results show that challenges related to mega trends, including the interconnected problems of rapid population growth and urbanisation were discussed the most in selected publications. The second most discussed challenges were institutional ones, including coordination and capacity issues. Technical and policy, legal, and regulatory challenges also had a prominent representation in selected publications, compared to other challenges, except institutional and those related to mega trends. Social, cultural, and behavioural challenges were the least discussed in the reviewed literature. The study notes that there is a need to recognise and take required measures to manage population growth and urbanisation rates, implement institutional reforms in the water sector, and pursue a collaborative approach involving multiple stakeholders if Pakistan is to tackle its worsening water scarcity threat decisively.
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The West: The History of an Idea
The world is witnessing the collapse of the Western order, if not the emergence of an alternative one. The idea of ‘West’ as against the rest is still at the root of contemporary understanding of world politics. Georgios Varouxakis, a remarkable voice on Modernity and Nationalism, has provided the historical origins and modern connotations attached with the idea of ‘West’. In his book ‘The West: The History of an Idea’, Varouxakis has argued that the West is not an eternal entity, rather it is a modern socio-political construct that emerged in the political philosophy of the early 19th century and evolved with the passage of time. The book provides an in-depth historical analysis of the idea to determine the roots of its modern interpretation.
Space-Enabled Warfare in the 21st Century: Pathways for Developing States
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The US-Israel War on Iran: Objectives, Strategy, and Escalation Management
Zahra Niazi
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The war, immediately preceded by the January mass protests in Iran, did not represent a sudden rupture but rather the continuation of a 47-year-long confrontation and a more intense phase of the June 2025 war.
The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, defined the war’s objectives as being laser-focused: to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities and its security infrastructure, while ensuring that it could never develop nuclear weapons. Beyond these stated objectives, among the priorities on the continuum also lay the objective of regime change, with both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu explicitly calling on the Iranian population to take over the government at the outset of the war.
