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As a rising India engages the world with confidence in an increasingly challenging environment, informed contestations on foreign policy should be the norm.

Though Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh's Bangladesh visit was kept low key, the timely interactions she had in Dhaka helped India shed its image of a reluctant neighbour besides helping her make a realistic assessment of the situation there and evaluate possible fallouts on regional stability.

The Vice-President of Maldives, in his address to the ORF faculty, recounts the long and bitter-sweet struggle against autocratic rule in his country. With an elected government now at the helm and democracy gradually taking roots in different spheres of society, he outlines the crucial challenges that lie ahead for the island nation.

If it is any yardstick for a vibrant democracy, India today has six former Prime Ministers around. Only two of them, namely, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao completed a full term, and thus became mascots of political stability in their time. Yet, subsequent elections proved that stability was not the only concern of the Indian voter. To him, political stability is a vehicle for his deliverance and in ways he understands.

Rather than allowing events to drift towards a political or even military showdown, Maldivian President Mohammed "Anni" Nasheed has shown great fidelity to democratic principles in a country where none existed before him by stepping down from office with grace and poise.

Though the 'Arab Spring' had dethroned the long serving President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, there is still little scope for genuine democracy, according to Mr. Swashpawan Singh, former Indian Ambassador to Kuwait.

A Male criminal court's sentencing of former President Mohammed Nasheed on 'terrorism charges' for 13 years in prison has revived 'democracy-deficit' charges and consequent global (read: West) discourse, this time against the government of incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.

If one thing is becoming increasingly clear in 'democratised' Maldives, it is that street-protests can change Governments and constitutions, policies and national priorities. It is thus that the nation found street-protests heralding 'multi-party' democracy,

Maldives Dhivehi Rayyethunge Party (DRP) chief, Mr. Thasmeen Ali, has said that the first government under the new Constitution, the government of President Nasheed, did not display courage and patience to follow the path of democratic governance.

Speaking about the domestic challenges that Nepal has been facing on the path towards drafting a new constitution, Nepal's Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay sought India's support in helping Nepal structure its democracy.

India is commonly — and rightly — considered as a reluctant democracy promoter. But while sceptical about the motives behind Western attempts to promote democracy and about the effects of their democracy promotion efforts, India has since the mid-2000s moved warily to involve itself in “democracy assistance”. This article argues that New Delhi has engaged in these activities in the context of a wider shift in strategy, in parallel with t

Whoever thought that ¿terrorising¿ the people of one¿s own country through dictatorial methods is equivalent to terrorism, as generally understood, is learning a new lesson in Iraq. With the failure to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass-destruction even months after the despot¿s exit, the US is finding that to the average Iraqi, it is not a ¿liberator¿ but an ¿occupier¿.

Pakistan created the Taliban in the first place to capture Afghanistan politically. It is Pakistan's dangerous, anti-Indian ambitions in Afghanistan that are recoiling on it today, with the Pakistani Taliban as an off shoot of the country's chosen tryst with its anti-Indian destiny.

Conflicts between central banks and governments are embedded in the evolving discourse of every democracy. The recent discord between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) is neither the first nor likely to be the last. Institutionally, once a disagreement between the RBI and the MoF crosses the Rubicon, the government has the power to overrule the central bank’s decisions. Moreover, such a structure is not restricte

Ever since the Rajya Sabha’s founding on 3 April 1952, calls have been made on numerous occasions for its abolition. Critics, including serving members of Parliament, question the continued relevance of the Upper House in India’s parliamentary system and blame it for delays in the passage of key bills. Yet, another view maintains that the Upper House plays a critical role in preserving the balance in parliamentary democracy by acting as a pla

Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Berlin organised a conference on "Fragmentation in a Democracy: The Role of Social Movements and the Media". Here is a report.

Experts feel that securitising climate change would defeat democracy in developing parts of the world which already have an overwhelming presence of military. Therefore, a counter narrative for securitising climate change is imperative.

India lacks an institutional infrastructure for advancing the cause of democracy as a soft power.

Fixers aka political managers abound because they thrive in an artificially scare economy where votes are a premium

Dr. Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, spoke to Rahul Mukand, Junior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, in New Delhi recently. This interview was conducted before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007.

The best way for India to promote democracy is through best practices.

Reverberations of post-colonial themes of finding ‘voice’ fuse with the leapfrog of technology for cooperation in the emerging world on achieving sustainable development goals - a report from the Conference on Technology, Innovation and Society at Tangier in June 2019.

For reasons to do with history and strategy, India will not abandon Russia.

This paper analyses historical trends in women’s participation in Indian democracy as voters, contestants, and legislators, using data on state assembly elections between the first one in 1951, and 2019. The paper finds that India is witnessing a strengthening of its democracy as measured in terms of an unprecedented growth in the political participation of women in these three roles. In these 73 years of Indian democracy, the turnout of women

Distrust towards the government can be the result of public experience of governmental incompetence

At a conference on "Transformations in West Asia: The Next Steps" in Delhi, speakers said each country must develop its unique path to achieve democracy, based on the historical and current social, political and economic context.

India has a role no less important than America’s in exposing the falsehood of Chinese claims on representative governance

If we do not stand up and reclaim the space we have conceded to criminals and other low-life who now sit in judgment over us, it will be our children who will pay the price in the coming years

The AU’s decision to ban Sudan counters the Gulf’s aggressive role in Sudan. It is a major diplomatic feat.

Kyrgyzstan held its first parliamentary election on October 10, making it the first country in the region to opt for a parliamentary democracy. However, leaders of the other Central Asian Republics remain apprehensive of the path chosen by Kyrgyzstan.

The release of the National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the Missile Defense Review reinforces the central message of the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, which focuses on the current decade as being a ‘decisive’ one

India and the European Union (EU) share a deep political and strategic relationship that pivots around democracy, global rule of law, security, and trade. While the depth is obvious on paper, however, the partnership has delivered short on dividends expected by both sides. Yet diplomatic engagement remains robust, and in recent times is moving towards greater mutual understanding of the challenges of terrorism and the potential counterterrorism s

This report evaluates India’s soft power strategies under the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2024. It looks into the ways in which the government has promoted cultural connectivity, diaspora engagement, and partnership building to strengthen India’s global image. It underlines the growth of India’s soft power in the past decade, becoming more coherent, strategic, and ambitious. In the past decade, India has initiated, f

The Nigerian presidential election on March 28 was nothing short of a historic turning point in the rather fragile democracy. An incumbent Nigerian President was voted out in a general election which was, on the whole, free and fair barring a few technical glitches.