CENO

01/10/2026

In a press conference, the Director General of the public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, raises serious questions on the Afghan Taliban’s abetment and sponsoring of terrorism as well as harbouring of internationally recognised terrorists involved in cross border terrorism in Pakistan.

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif highlighted the collaboration of terrorist organisations under a terror ecosystem provided by the Taliban regime.

A recent UN Monitoring Team report, S/2026/651, issued on 10 August 2026, confirms that Afghanistan remains a major concern for regional security, and that cross-border attacks between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated, driven by the high number of TTP attacks against Pakistan.

Read Aisha Ghazi’s recent detailed analysis of Afghanistan’s Terrorism Ecosystem for CENO at:

https://ceno.org.uk/afghanistan-terrorism-ecosystem-taliban-rule/

30/09/2026

Five years after the Taliban’s return, Afghanistan has developed into a terrorism ecosystem base: a Taliban-controlled environment where the TTP, Al-Qaida and AQIS obtain varying degrees of sanctuary, logistical space and ideological support.

The danger is a self-reinforcing cycle. Once it becomes institutionalised, counter-terrorism ceases to be solely a law-enforcement problem and becomes one of interstate conflict management.

Read Aisha Ghazi’s full analysis for CENO at:

https://ceno.org.uk/afghanistan-terrorism-ecosystem-taliban-rule/

Afghanistan’s terrorism ecosystem: how Taliban rule sustains the TTP and Al-Qaida threat to South Asia, drawing on UN Monitoring Team reports.

28/09/2026

The US and China have agreed an AI incident hotline.

In warfare, milliseconds count: one software glitch could look like a first strike.

Muhammad Ehsan's latest article for CENO examines what the Trump–Xi summit delivered, and what it didn't.

Read his full article at:

https://ceno.org.uk/us-china-ai-hotline-what-the-trump-xi-summit-agreed/

The US and China have agreed an AI incident hotline and a new dialogue after the Trump–Xi summit. What it means for AI risk and escalation.

27/09/2026

📢 CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

The Centre for Ethnology and Normative Order (CENO) is looking for scholars and researchers to join our roster of freelance academic contributors.

As an independent think tank, we commission high-level research briefs, policy commentary, and strategic assessments analysing contemporary global security and international law.

Key Focus Areas:
• Geopolitics & Regional Security: Conflict dynamics and power shifts (focusing on the Global South, Eurasia, and the Middle East).
• IR & Normative Order: The evolution of statecraft, global governance, and emerging technologies.
• Applied History: Historical analysis of contemporary crises and diplomatic precedents.

What we're looking for:
Academics with a postgraduate background (MA, MPhil, or PhD) in International Relations, Geopolitics, History, Strategic Studies, or related fields, who have a strong interest in writing about their area of expertise and sharing their views.

To Register Your Interest:
Submit your CV, and examples of previous writing to [email protected]

27/09/2026

2,181,582 books screened. 4,812 pulled from shelves.

In Indian-occupied Kashmir, a sweeping institutional audit is quietly rewriting history and silencing dissent.

Abid Wani's latest article examines the Kashmir book purge and its threat to academic freedom in the region.

Read his full piece at:

https://ceno.org.uk/the-politics-of-erasure-institutional-audits-banned-books-and-the-suppression-of-dissent-in-indian-occupied-kashmir/

The Kashmir book purge has stripped nearly 5,000 titles from libraries, threatening academic freedom and expression in the occupied region.

25/09/2026

Hakan Fidan, Turkish Foreign Minister, responded to criticism on the Mecca Alliance claiming Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia were its “first test.”

Hakan Fidan compared it to NATO, and asked former U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye James Jeffrey how many times NATO’s Article 5 had been invoked and Jeffrey answered: “only once”.

Fidan said: “Nobody criticises NATO as a paper tiger. But when it comes to a newborn defense alliance, they point to a 10-year crisis in Yemen and say, ‘Look, this is not working.’ We have only just started.”

25/09/2026

“The right to a grave should not be contingent on one's faith”.

Across India, burial denial is emerging as a troubling instrument of exclusion, one that targets the dead precisely when the living can no longer be silenced.

In his article, John Dayal, member of India's National Integration Council and former Secretary-General of the All India Christian Council, examines the weaponisation of burial rites against religious minorities, and what it signals for pluralism and the rule of law.

Read his full article at:

https://ceno.org.uk/weaponizing-the-dead-why-burial-denial-marks-a-dangerous-shift-in-india/

23/09/2026

King Abdullah II's latest UN General Assembly address signals a stark assessment of Israel's regional ambitions.

His message was clear: Israel's actions are not isolated, but rather indicative of an "expansionist appetite" that now constitutes a "regional threat".

The Jordanian Monarch pointed specifically to Syria as a crucial warning sign that the international community is "choosing not to see". He detailed a pattern of "repeated incursions, creeping territorial expansion," and the imposition of "new facts on the ground," including the control of vital water resources.

Crucially, his speech scrutinises the international community's inaction.

He stated that "step by calculated step, Israel is testing how far it can go". His conclusion was sobering: "And every time the international community looks away, Israel learns that it can go even further, across borderlines and legal limits".

This address underscores a profound frustration from a key regional stabiliser, explicitly challenging the global security architecture to enforce its boundaries.

23/09/2026

President Erdoğan’s address delivered a blistering indictment of global governance. By centring his relentless defence of Palestine and condemning what he termed Israel's "genocidal mindset," he argued that the UN "has failed to fulfil its duty" and has been forced into "dysfunction," bleeding out not just in Palestine, but also in Lebanon and Sudan.

Beyond the Middle East, the speech carried immediate geopolitical ramifications for South Asia, delivering a calculated setback to India’s foreign policy. By deliberately invoking the Kashmir dispute and advocating for its resolution "within the framework of the United Nations Charter," Erdoğan directly challenged New Delhi’s rigid assertion that Kashmir is strictly an internal, bilateral matter.

For Islamabad, this represents a highly coveted diplomatic victory. Pakistan has long sought to internationalise the Kashmir dispute, and securing the vocal, multilateral advocacy of a prominent NATO and regional power on the UN’s main stage amplifies that strategy.

Ultimately, 's messaging on Palestine and Kashmir serves a unified strategic purpose: positioning Ankara as a premier moral arbiter while confronting the structural inadequacies of the global order. By friction-testing ties with New Delhi over absolute bilateralism and rejecting the UN's passive consensus on Gaza, Turkey is signaling its intent to aggressively champion long-standing disputes, utilising the very dysfunction of international institutions to elevate its own geopolitical leadership.

17/09/2026

At the recent BRICS summit, strategic ambiguity emerged as the primary tool for maintaining bloc cohesion. As member states navigate deep-seated regional rivalries and divergent economic interests, true multilateral alignment remains elusive.

Read our latest article on the limits of consensus:

https://ceno.org.uk/papering-over-the-fissures-the-illusion-of-consensus-in-an-expanded-brics/