Issue Briefs

International Affairs | China Foreign Policy

• 

Sep 22, 2021

Nearly 100 million people are said to have been lifted out of poverty in China since 2012, coinciding with President Xi Jinping's reign as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, closing the income gap is a stated goal of the 14th Five-Year ...

International Affairs | Defence and Security

• 

Sep 21, 2021

This brief examines the evolution of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept in the context of the dynamic role of “regions” in international relations. It argues that the conception of these theatres is a consequence of power relations; that as power dynamics change, so does the conceptualisation of ...

International Affairs | Climate Change

• 

Sep 20, 2021

Economic growth has historically been dependent on fossil fuels. Climate change mitigation, therefore, is often an obstacle for developing countries. Although efficiency in the use of energy sources has increased dramatically over the last decades, GHG emissions remain at steep levels. This brief argues that ...

International Affairs | Great Power Dynamics | Climate Change | Agriculture

• 

Sep 17, 2021

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have all declared their commitment to climate action and the implementation of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This brief makes a case for BRICS, as a forum, to build a strategy for financing regenerative ...

International Affairs | Great Power Dynamics | Defence and Security

• 

Sep 16, 2021

Heightening great-power rivalry has impeded consensus-making in multilateral institutions. This has given rise, in recent years, to minilaterals especially in the Indo-Pacific. Even as there are criticisms that minilaterals are too informal and lacking in structures that are required for focused debates, China’s belligerence has ...

International Trade and Investment

• 

Sep 01, 2021

The multilateral frameworks that were established following the Second World War paved the way to strengthening global governance and international cooperation. Over the decades, however, the ability of these multilateral forums to take collective action has been hobbled by institutional inertia, vested interests, and challenges ...

Neighbourhood

• 

Aug 23, 2021

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, often hailed as a diplomatic triumph, aims to limit temperature increases to below 2 degrees Celsius (C), preferably to 1.5 degrees C, compared to pre-industrial levels. However, with the United Nations (UN) having failed to establish a method for putting ...

Cyber Security | Privacy & Data Protection | Internet Governance

• 

Aug 12, 2021

Free flow in data can unlock huge social and economic value in user data that is usually locked in silos. With this motivation, Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA), a public-private endeavour, is being developed in India as a template for users to access and ...

International Affairs | Nuclear Security

• 

Aug 06, 2021

Israel believes that the use of force is essential to stopping Iran from making the nuclear bomb. A vocal section of the strategic affairs community in the United States agrees with the proposition. This brief argues that military means are unlikely to sabotage the nuclear ...

Healthcare | Development

• 

Aug 04, 2021

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on food and nutrition security. Efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on Zero Hunger have been stalled, and it is estimated that an additional 137 million people faced acute food insecurity as ...