WORLD ROUNDUPThe Developing Trilateral Imperialist Partnership | U.S. and Central Asian Conflicts | growing Canada-India Tensions, and more

India Suspends Visas for Canadians, Escalating Clash Over Sikh’s Killing  (Suhasini Raj and Yan Zhuang, New York Times)
India has suspended visa applications by Canadian nationals, a sharp escalation in the diplomatic conflict that has followed Canada’s claim that Indian agents were behind an assassination in June on Canadian soil.

Thailand: What Next for Reformist Pita After Failed PM Bid?  (Tommy Walker, DW)
Despite winning the general election, reformist politician Pita Limjaroenrat quit as the Move Forward Party leader last week after being blocked by parliament from becoming Thailand’s next prime minister.

Germany Has Reached ‘a Limit’ on Migration, Steinmeier Says  (DW)
Germany is facing difficulties in taking in more migrants, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday.
“Germany, like Italy, is at the limit of its capacity,” Steinmeier said in an interview with Italian Newspaper Corriere della Sera, pointing out that Germany had received a third of all EU asylum requests in the first half of 2023.
The president acknowledged that both Italy and Germany had “heavy loads to bear” and called for a “fair distribution” of migratory burdens within Europe.

North Korea, Russia and China: The Developing Trilateral Imperialist Partnership (Bruce W. Bennett, 1945)
There are no easy ways for the United States and its allies to counter the developing Russia-China-North Korea partnership. But there are options to consider and steps to take. There are also fissures in their relationships to exploit.

The Strawman Defense Is Torching Taiwan’s Military  (Michael J. Lostumbo, 9DASHLINE)
There are many reasons why the political future of Taiwan Strait relations is uncertain, but the military considerations for Taiwan are much more straightforward. Taiwan should invest in capabilities that are highly survivable and potent against a potential attack from mainland China. That is the only productive direction for Taiwan’s military.

Made in the Himalayas: Building War Games for India and Its Partners  (Sidharth Raimedhi, The Strategist)
Wargaming has returned to the fore as a tool for military planning. US think tanks are outcompeting each other in wargaming a Taiwan contingency, with their recommendations amplified by mainstream media. One recent war game even made congressional representatives act as US National Security Council members in a Taiwan contingency.
The potential benefits of wargaming are historically evident, even if their full impact is still debated. Many war games are essentially geared towards military scorecard comparisons and warfighting, with the objective of collecting information on the likely use of weapons systems within a set of strategic choices.
India lags in wargaming and should develop a culture of strategic wargaming. But the type of war game that’s prominent in the West may have limited value for India, particularly in examining potential conflicts with China in the Himalayas.

Islamic State Khorasan Within Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan: Dynamics and Synergies with Allies and Enemies  (Noellynn Slaughter, HSToday)
Despite two decades of U.S.-led counterterrorism efforts since 9/11, terrorism has continued to spread globally and adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Yet as the world shifts once again towards competition between the U.S. and revisionist powers such as China and Russia, and Afghanistan is once again in the hands of the Taliban, there appears to be a form of tunnel-vision taking place regarding global terrorism, as though the problems that have shaped the beginning of the 21^st century that gave rise to much of it have been solved, when clearly they have not. This is a grave strategic error; the fight against terrorism is far from over and while harder to visualize now didn’t end on the day the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. What is ignored today will almost certainly become tomorrow’s problem once again. While the “Islamic State” that originated in Iraq and Syria had its roots in al-Qaeda, it went far beyond its origins and ISIS now has affiliates in multiple countries throughout the world that threaten to again create an international terrorist hub. Among these, the greatest strategic threat at present comes from ISIS’s quasi-independent affiliate Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), rapidly rising in the highly unstable post-U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The United States Must Not Enflame Central Asian Conflicts  (Alex Little, National Interest)
While the United States has been involved militarily in Central Asia, now is the time to recharacterize its engagement in the region by further distancing itself from this militaristic past.