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Political parties have put up strong resistance to electoral reforms, notwithstanding appointing committees and commissions from time to time.

The Arctic region, with its vast reserves of natural gas, minerals, oil, and hydrocarbons, presents energy and economic opportunities for countries, including India. India’s Arctic Policy, released in 2022, signalled the country’s intent to expand its engagements in the region beyond its historical focus on scientific research and climate studies. While the policy acknowledges the region’s growing economic potential, however, it does not ad

There is no doubt that Iranian security policy is now bent on laying out on the table and publicising its entire gamut of strategic and tactical playing cards for all to see

'Post-Islamism' has become the new face of political Islam which incorporates the positive and accommodating attitudes of the West towards Islam and the pluralistic attitudes of Islam towards the West, according to Mr Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman.

To check non-tariff barriers in the south Asian region, India being the largest economy in the region must take the lead, but other partners must extend cooperation and come together on a common platform.

Despite last year’s quadrilateral Malabar exercises and the recent announcement of new working groups, Quad cooperation on naval interoperability, critical technologies, and Covid-19 had been manifest previously.

With only a week left for the scheduled second-round polling in the presidential elections on Saturday, 28 September, it may be time the stake-holders in Maldives arrived at an interim consensus, keeping the healthy and constructive future of the infant democracy at heart.

A legislative deadlock involving the Executive and Parliament on the one hand, and the Executive and the Judiciary on the other, both leading to a serious and a series of constitutional crisis kept Maldivian politics and politicians on their toes for most of 2010.

Maldivians, particularly the security authorities in the country, may have heaved a sigh of relief after the competing rallies by the NGOs and the political Opposition on the one hand, and the ruling MDP on the other, went off peacefully on Friday last.

After a week of relative lull on the political front, Maldivian politics revved up on March 5, after the police detained former President Mohammed Nasheed, for production before the Hulhumale' court.

It did not receive as much media attention as the one by predecessor Mohammed Nasheed a fortnight earlier in the host nation. Yet when President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik came calling at New Delhi he did make his points, loud and clear at corridors and quarters that mattered.

The US has provided financial and military support to Ukraine since 2014, when Russia took control of Crimea, and more firmly since February 2022, when the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war began. Indeed, US military, political, and strategic support to Ukraine is crucial to Kyiv as the conflict continues. For the Biden administration, aid to Ukraine is a vital principle on which his party politics hinges; it is a critical pathway to rebuild transatlant

Export orientation is a quality and time conscious eco-system which hinges on becoming part of global supply chains.

Cricket has always come in handy for India and Pakistan leaders to break political ice at difficult moments. And this World Cup has provided Modi with an opportunity to end the current diplomatic impasse. Modi called up Sharif to wish Pakistan well in the Cup and offered to send the new foreign secretary to Islamabad.

Instead of dealing with the Mullaperiyar dam controversy as a geo-political conflict, it should be tackled as an institutional, legal and administrative failure in the region. Equitable distribution of the benefits of the shared resource is not an impossible task to achieve.

The year 2013 started with a glimmer of hope for political prisoners languishing in jails across Myanmar when President Thein Sein announced a committee to scrutinise release of political prisoners in February.

When comparing the current geopolitical landscape of Europe to the circumstances in the years following NATO’s establishment, it becomes apparent that very little has changed.

As the largest party in the Nepal Constituent Assembly, it is the responsibility of the Maoist party to furnish a clear roadmap for the peace process, acceptable to all the political players. And much of the onus lies on Prachanda.

Nepal, one of the youngest republics in the world, is in the midst of a political chaos and uncertainty these days. The chaotic uncertainty is primarily due to the lack of political will to build a consensus on some of the contentious issues plaguing the nation.

The road ahead in Nepal's fragile political landscape is becoming much bleaker with increasing power tussle. While Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is insisting that he will hand over power only to an elected government.

With the elections date to the Nepal Constituent Assembly now being announced, it is time for all political actors to unite for the larger cause. The poll announcement should be the beginning of a new rapprochement between the parties.

On the first anniversary of Osama bin-Laden's killing, questions about his relevance are déjà vu. What's more interesting is how even when on the run and long dead the Sheikh of misdirected Jehad shaped the histories of nations.

Dr K S Subramanian, IPS (retd), a former DGP-level official in Tripura, spoke on the topic, "Political violence and policing in India", at the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation, on 19 January 2008.

Assumptions are a necessary part of statecraft and military planning. However, there are dangers in making incorrect presuppositions, especially those related to social, cultural or quasi-cultural aspects of an adversary that are then predicted to have an impact on military-political outcomes. This paper examines some of the most common political-military assumptions about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that are inherently problematic, as

The most important question that comes to mind after China has lifted its hold on Masood Azhar’s designation as a terrorist under UN rules is: Why now? Why plumb in the middle of the general elections?

On March 13, 2006, the Union Home Minister announced a 14-point policy on Naxalism in the Lok Sabha as outlined in a booklet, 'Status Paper on the Naxal Problem'. In an effort to counter political criticism and allay the oft- repeated concerns of knowledgeable and informed circles,

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 Plan (2021-25) and part of the CCP's objectives till 2035. As resentment of the rich has grown, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi has encouraged the wealthy to embrace austeri

With the midnight melodrama involving the Delhi Police and Baba Ramdev, the issue of fighting corruption has been over-shadowed by the propriety of the police using excessive force to disrupt the peaceful crowd of people, who were sleeping in those tents after all.

After a decade, officials from India, Japan, Australia and the United States convened in Manila in November 2017 to renew their quadrilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. While the agenda of the quad is still unknown, this paper presents a political-military strategy for the grouping directed at shaping Chinese behaviour in the region. Viewing strategy through the ends-means-ways lens, the paper describes key objectives of dissuasion, deterre

Unstable political systems, ineffectual international organisations, and unprecedented technological advancements have created a global environment that can enable the development and deployment of bioweapons. New-age bioweapons could be used for more than just as weapons of mass destruction. This necessitates a new approach to mitigate risks by staying apace with technological development. India must take a leadership position at the Biological

India’s relationships with Bangladesh, Myanmar and China hang in the balance.

Politicians have always used the media to communicate with the electorate. What makes social media unique is the scale, speed, and minimal cost at which leaders can do this task. This paper analyses the relationship between political leaders and the microblogging site, Twitter. It provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the use of Twitter by two contemporary Indian political leaders—Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. It describ