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Russia’s war on Ukraine, interrupted value chains, and increased regionalisation are putting pressures on the already-strained multilateral trading system. Though a strong World Trade Organization (WTO) is needed to navigate these challenges, the organisation risks becoming irrelevant if far-reaching reforms are not implemented as soon as possible. In the short- and medium-term, WTO members must agree on limiting export barriers, especi

Trusted connectivity, diversified sources of materials, and resilient financial and trading arrangements have become a strategic imperative for India

In our dealings with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, we have often appeared defensive, occasionally apologetic, leading to a bleeding heart syndrome among some of us. This approach ignores that Pakistan has cynically used violence, and the world has allowed it to do so, as an instrument of foreign policy. This attitude also mixes sympathy and concern for the innocent with that for the terrorist.

The ‘crown jewel’ of the World Trade Organization (WTO) — the dispute resolution mechanism — is facing a crisis. The US obstruction to new appointments in the WTO’s Appellate Body (AB) has frozen the appeals process and brought the mechanism to a halt. Until such crisis is resolved, New Delhi will need to explore other means for resolving its current and future trade disputes. This paper outlines interim solutions that India can emplo

Established in 1995, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement System (DSS) is used to resolve trade-related disputes between WTO member states. It has received over 500 complaints since its inception, and utilises both political negotiation and adjudication for dispute resolution. Today the DSS faces an unprecedented crisis due to US obstruction, which may render the system effectively dysfunctional by late 2019. It is likely tha

This year reinforced, with unmistakable clarity, the fact that the use of force remains a crucial mechanism through which states renegotiate the terms of their engagement with one another

Despite advancements in legislation and representation over the last decades, women continue to face barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, legal protection against violence, and leadership roles. In the economic sphere, gender disparities persist in labour force participation, job sectors, wages, and unpaid care work. Women are constrained in participating in the labour market as their social role remains attached to domestic

In Tamil Nadu, the inspiration and inputs for the protestors come not from Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka, but from their Diaspora groups whose linkages to the LTTE are discernible.

The demand for an Asian NATO remains negligible in Southeast Asia. This is because most countries are convinced that a multilateral security architecture will only elevate regional insecurities, and make them subservient to great power contestations

What has happened in Balakot is a punitive strike against known camps of terrorists — especially Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The Government of India is reported to have advised a short postponement of the departure of the Indian cricket team to Bangladesh to play in some matches against the Bangladesh team at Dhaka and Chittagong following the receipt at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka of a fax message purported to have been signed by an organisation called Harkat-ul-Jihad warning of dire consequences if the team went ahead with the visit.

June 4th was the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident. In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was widely reviled for its violent handling of peaceful student protests. The crackdown prompted stringent political censure of the CCP by the international community and economic sanctions were imposed against China.

Pakistan's military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf has seemingly upset the Indians by insisting on a specific time frame within which a solution to the Kashmir issue acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris is worked out within the framework of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.

Cyber insecurity is now a global risk no different from the warming climate or forced displacement. Is such insecurity a business risk or a "public bad"?

Three sets of issues emerge here - understanding the nature of technology-linked risks, assessing the challenges to governance, and being imaginative in embracing new modes of regulation.

The 2021 Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) propelled nations to ramp up their climate targets and the concomitant Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the updated NDCs and the announced pledges for 2030 remain insufficient and poorly aligned with the targets of the Paris Agreement. The reduction in projected 2030 emissions is estimated to be 7.5 percent—far lower than the 30 percent requi

The Kashmiri insurgency is now nearly three decades old, having taken the lives of some 45,000 people, roughly half of them militants, 14,000 civilians and some 6,000 security personnel.

Pakistan has shown inadequate political will to act against the Mumbai conspirators and has found tactical refuge in legal niceties to take minimum action

The attempt being made to show that the Project-75I submarine project does not suit the Indian Navy is misinformation aimed at influencing the defence decision-making process

Amidst increasing global connectivity and accelerating global change, the global security framework has become insufficient, contributing to a crippling dysfunctionality in international cooperation. The current security framework, focused almost exclusively on a narrow notion of military security, is insufficient to address escalating ‘threats without enemy,’ such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, which increasingly endang

The Indian Ocean, a vast maritime expanse, features diverse social, spatial, and topographical characteristics. This diversity is evident in the various actors operating independently, with minimal synergy, political unity, and distinct challenges, across its sub-regions. In this context, what does the maritime security architecture in the region look like? This brief finds that it remains fragmented, and makes a case for nurturing its cohesivene

Public transportation (PT) planning in Indian cities has historically focused on private vehicles and rail-based systems while neglecting bus-based transit. Such planning has led to fragmented urban mobility solutions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of PT systems planning in India by assessing the present state of these systems and analysing planning practices. It summarises the characteristics of various PT modes and the expert guideline

There is widespread hope that the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow will deliver decisive action on the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. This report gathers different perspectives from analysts in South Asia, Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and the UK on regional priorities and positions on key issues related to the global fight against climate change. Certain threads bind these analyses regarding what the

The need for integrated water resource management (IWRM) has been explored and articulated by many water professionals over the recent years. Today, such a holistic approach to the management of water systems has become even more imperative in the context of the global crisis in water for which no easy solution is yet in sight. This brief calls for the development and institutionalisation of the interdisciplinary approach of integrated water syst

Digital spaces are becoming increasingly vital for public deliberation on issues of shared interest, including during electoral campaigns. This brief examines the types of discourse on social media platforms that electoral candidates engage in. It studies the content of the online campaigns and their potential impact on voter education, and recommends countermeasures against the threat of uninformed and unethical online narratives that only

The application of emerging technologies will play a key role in the performance of India’s armed forces. All three services understand the significance of these technological innovations in modern warfare, although their development has been uneven across the branches. This analysis provides an overview of how far the three services of the Indian armed forces have gone in integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyber technology, and

Goal seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commits the international community to providing access to clean cooking fuels and technologies to all by 2030. Progress has been slow, however, and in about 40 of the UN’s 189 member countries for which data is available, more that 80 percent of the populations continue to lack such access. Using case studies, this brief analyses the role of a country’s policies, i

This paper creates an index to track the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation) across India’s states. The SDG 6 index incorporates both supply-side indicators and demand management variables, as well as institutional interventions. In this paper, state-wise indices are constructed to identify their respective performances in the domains of access to clean water and provision of sanitation facilitie

With both India and the US having differing domestic and national priorities, these countries are bound to compete and conflict on trade issues. But these must not be allowed to overshadow the larger gains that bilateral trade has brought to each country.

This report explores the role of water credits to incentivise conservation, optimise allocation, and integrate sustainability into corporate and agricultural water use. Modelled after carbon credits, water credits incentivise stakeholders—including agriculture, industry, services, and households—to offset consumption by investing in water conservation and efficiency measures. The study examines economic and ecological valuation models and pri

Cross-border migration poses security challenges for the modern nation-state, as the influx of populations exert massive pressures on a country’s resources and governance ecosystems. The undocumented migrants, for their part, not only struggle for their livelihood but often face fundamental crises of identity and belonging. Using the case of India’s eastern borders, this paper problematises the phenomenon of migration against the dich

Two months back an observer had noted that "without India wanting to make it so, an impression is gaining ground that our American commitments seem to insist on intruding on India-Iran relations."

Despite Trump's curious attempt to take credit where none is due, New Delhi remains in the driving seat when it comes to it making choices pertaining to Pakistan and its malevolent actions.

President Trump's efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine and Hamas-Israel wars have faced significant obstacles, revealing the complexities of peacemaking. Despite his campaign pledge to resolve both conflicts quickly, negotiations have stalled.

Under President Trump, the United States seems to adopting an unprecedented antagonistic stance against the institutions, commitments, and unpronounced precedents alike, of the liberal world order that the US itself put in place in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Instead of agonising over the failures of the Saarc, Delhi has recognised that two-speed regionalism is quite common around the world. Also, India has often looked beyond the Saarc to benefit from trans-regional cooperation, like BIMSTEC

Ohio remains the key for the Romney campaign. Without Ohio, Romney will likely lose. If Obama continues to hold on to Ohio, he can win reasonably comfortably. So, in the final stretch, Obama is ahead by a nose, but it is still too close to call.

There is a preponderance of storms around the Black Sea. Its ancient beaches are littered with shipwrecks from the classical world. Some American geologists insist the great Biblical flood occurred there.

The tide of the war has turned against Moscow. But the Russian president and his close advisers do not acknowledge that reality and have resorted to nuclear sabre rattling

It may be the strategy of Russia to bleed Ukraine dry, says Dr Andrew Kuchins, an expert on Russia. Ukraine has had 5-6 per cent negative economic growth this year. He says even a 30 plus billion dollar package from the IMF and others may not be enough to put Ukraine back on its feet again.

Putin’s war against Ukraine is more about his domestic political standing, but it has already laid the foundation of a new global order that is unlikely to be of his liking

India-Bangladesh relations face a challenging period following Sheikh Hasina's ouster. Anti-India rhetoric, violence against minorities, and the arrest of a Hindu monk have strained ties. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's visit aimed to refocus on economic cooperation and address concerns. The interim government must reciprocate to rebuild the partnership crucial for South Asia's future.

This brief examines the response of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to the prolonged Ukraine war. ASEAN’s approach is viewed from two perspectives: how individual member states have responded, and the stance that the grouping itself has taken. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion in February this year, the ASEAN statement was insipid; it underlined the importance of the principles of ‘mutual respect fo

For India to become a part of the global value chains, a better intellectual property regime is needed. Further, India needs to take measures to be a part of the mega regionals which are going to shape the future of global trade architecture such as TPP and RCEP.

The United States (US) has revoked India’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and imposed Section 232 tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium. In response, India announced retaliatory tariffs. This brief probes the ongoing trade tensions between India and the US, despite a reduction in the trade deficit. It discusses the heightened influence of the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and outlines its apprehensions

The United States (US) has revoked India’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and imposed Section 232 tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium. In response, India announced retaliatory tariffs. This brief probes the ongoing trade tensions between India and the US, despite a reduction in the trade deficit. It discusses the heightened influence of the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and outlines its apprehensions