Pak-US Strategic Partnership in the War on Terror to Curb Militant Bloodbath

Pakistan’s involvement in the US war on terrorism was a tragic decision. No option was left for the ruling elite of Pakistan except to join the global war on terrorism and to take a U-turn from the support of Taliban’s regime in Afghanistan which was duly recognized by Pakistan’s government in 1996. It was expected by the policy-makers of the US that the alliance with Pakistan would provide extraordinary strength in combating the Al-Qaeda and other affiliated conglomerates in Afghanistan as well as in borderland area. However, after fifteen years of war, the alliance has enfeebled despite their mutual understanding regarding the objectives envisaged in the Strategic Partnership. The war on terrorism has now been escalated from Afghanistan to Pakistan and it has provided space to religious extremism, militancy, intolerance, ethnic division and sectarianism. There is no denial to the fact that religious extremism and terrorism are common threat and have damaged both the countries yet Pakistan has sacrificed more than the US in terms of human and material loss. Nevertheless, blame game and trust deficit is on the rise from both sides. This article focuses first on the joint ventures that the US and Pakistan mutually initiated to curb militant bloodbath in Afghanistan as well as in the border region. Secondly, it will explore factors responsible for increasing trust deficit between the partners. The study will not only provide deep understanding about the prevailing issues between Pakistan and the US but will also give true pictures to streamline the methodology for negotiating with each other in  future.

Waves and Instabilities Due to Inhomogeneous Plasma Flows and Formation of Nonlinear Structures

The effects of the constant and space-dependant flows of plasma species on the linear and nonlinear dynamics of low frequency electrostatic and electromagnetic waves are studied by using fluid theory. The nonlinear structures such as solitons, double layers and vortices produced by plasma flows are studied under local approximation. The theoretical model is applied to space and astrophysical plasmas where the particle velocity distributions exhibit non-Maxwellian behavior, in general. Therefore the nonlinear structures have also been investigated considering kappa, qnonextensive and Cairn''s distributions etc. of lighter species. The characteristics of these structures such as the width and amplitude of solitons and double layers are modified in a non-Maxwellian plasma significantly as compared to those when the lighter particles are Maxwellian. The Sagdeev pseudo-potential appraoch has been employed to get the strongly nonlinear dynamics for the formation of solitons and double layers (DLs), while the small amplitude limits are also obtained. Both uniform and sheared flows give rise to instabilities of electrostatic and electromagnetic waves. The effects of non-Maxwellian distributions on the new type of drift wave, which appear even in density homogeneous plasmas and, appear due to sheared flow of electrons and ions in the stationary dust plasmas have been pointed out. The coupling of this mode with Alfvén wave is also investigated and electromagnetic vortices are obtained. Comparison of this research work with initial studies is also presented and theoretical model is applied to Saturn''s and Jupiter’s magnetosphere for the sake of illustrations. An analysis of the sheared flow driven instabilities with kinetic approach is also presented and comparison with fluid theory is discussed.