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There has been a relative decline in the far reaching capabilities of the US

Though the recent Assembly polls in Bihar witnessed developmental agenda replacing caste and related equations, the power structure is yet to change at the societal level. There only the rich and influential mattered, with caste playing a dominant role, based on individual regions.

The Afghan-Pakistani region is in transition and the changing geo-political realities will have new implications, says Kamran Bokhari, Vice President of Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs at Stratfor. He says old paradigms cannot be used to gauge new realities.

It is not only President Obama who feels boxed in by the Lindsay Grahams and John McCains of his country but Rouhani too has formidable set of foes to fight, before either can climb down from his stated position. Not everyone in Iran wants his President to negotiate the country out of its present misery.

Over the last few decades, particularly after the end of cold war, a distinctive feature of the strategic and security related environment has been the unprecedented and sheer dynamics of change in the concepts, paradigms and complexities of national, regional and global security.

Last fortnight's India-China joint naval exercise, however limited, may be a new opening in bilateral relations. Coupled with the politico-economic CBMs of the past years, the Shanghai naval exercise is an indication that both nations are learning to overcome the bitter past.

Traditionally, a newly elected South Korean President visits Washington first, followed by Tokyo. But the new President Park Geun-hye, as expected, did visit Washington first in May, but followed it up by a visit to Beijing and not to Tokyo. This is interpreted this to speculate that China has taken precedence over Japan in Seoul's diplomatic calculations.

During the past couple of weeks, Nepal Maoist chief Prachanda has given three significant interviews. He carefully picked up three influential and understanding media channels, ¿ Kantipur in Nepal, The Hindu in India and the BBC of London ¿ to send a strong message across to Nepal, India and the international community respectively.

India will likely struggle to achieve the SDGs for financial reasons. At present, a shocking 2-3 per cent of Indians pay taxes. Mobilising domestic finance ? including optimal tax collection reform ? can help supplement the traditional sources of aid.

Iran's cancellation of $500 million funding to Pakistan for the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline indicates Iran's clout in regional energy affairs. It is unclear why Iran took this sudden step. Is President Rouhani merely fine-tuning some of the policies of his predecessor? But there is certainly more to this than meets the eye.

President Pervez Musharraf has a number of reasons to be unhappy with India. It took only a few hours for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to dismiss the General's seemingly well-crafted and cleverly worded war-game plans for Greater Kashmir. The General's idea was simple.

Chennai may have lost out on the petroleum, petro-chemicals, pharmaceutical, and biotech fields, but it still remains the home-base of several solid market leaders from myriad industries.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The George Bush visit was a giant step forward for Indo-US relations and India was elated to be part of the Big League. Now that he has gone, the Left protests turned out to be only that much bushfire and the euphoria of the visit has evaporated somewhat, it is time to evaluate just what this winwin situation might mean.

India-Bangladesh relations got a major boost following Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Dhaka in July this year. The visit, described by Chidambaram as constructive, infused optimism about the resolution of some of the bilateral issues like border during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled visit to India in September this year.

Wasting is easily reversible once the impact of infectious disease recedes and health status improve. Severe wasting, however, requires concerted medical attention along with appropriate nutritional intake.

At the forefront of the new militancy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are children. This brief builds on a United Nations (UN) 2018 report highlighting the recruitment of juveniles by militant groups in Kashmir, and explores the issue using data and case studies. The brief discusses the factors and conditions that encourage minors in J&K to join such groups, in the context of the weaknesses of the existing juvenile justice

Since the mass exodus of the Muslim Rohingya people from Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, close to a million of them have been residing in Bangladesh. While the country has offered them sanctuary, there are massive gaps in seeing to their welfare, including the lack of formal, basic education for the children. In 2020, the Bangladesh government announced the launch of the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP) to provide the displaced Rohingya

The People's Republic of China (PRC) witnessed the beginning of a new era - Hu Jintao era, when the sixty one year fourth generation leader was elected to the post of Chairman of the Central Military Commission(CMC) during the Fourth Plenum of the 16th Chinese Communist Party(CCP) Central Committee (Beijing, September 16-19

China has avoided taking up regional and global responsibilities despite the United States' basic policy and efforts to make it a responsible stakeholder in the international community and help it take its rightful place as a global power, according to US scholar Dr Michael Auslin.

Over the last five years, Brexit, the victory of Donald Trump in the US and the assumption of power by Xi Jinping in China, the seizure of Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis, the South China Sea disputes, and the emerging Iran crisis, have all helped upend the world order. Amidst these crises, the surge of Chinese acquisitions and investments in Europe did not draw much attention. The acrimony, however, between China and the US on trade and industri

This has been a longstanding policy of China, but more recently, Beijing has been perturbed by New Delhi’s proactive push in China’s periphery along the wider Indo-Pacific. Beijing is attempting to portray itself as the new leader in the emerging multipolar world

It is clear that the old confidence building measures regime initiated in 1993 has broken down. Yet striving to sort out differences over where the LAC lies is the only way forward for Prime Minister Modi and President Xi.

Indonesia is increasing its military presence in the region and upgrading its forces in the Natuna Islands as it seeks to challenge China and maintain its control over an important sea domain containing abundant marine food and energy resources.

China and Russia both seek closer ties with the Taliban in Kabul, even as they have refrained from fully recognising the regime. This brief explores China’s and Russia’s converging interests in Afghanistan, and argues that their primary concern is a shared existential threat of terrorism from Afghanistan. Beijing and Moscow regard Afghanistan as a potential source of trans-regional instability, and they are adopting a pragmatic approa

2003 was an important year in the evolution of China¿s counter-terrorism policy. In December last, its Ministry of Public Security issued a list of identified 'Eastern Turkistan' terrorist organizations. Figuring in the list are the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the World Uighur Youth Congress (WUYC),

As part of its political transition from military to "civilian" rule, Myanmar adopted a new constitution through a national referendum in 2008 and conducted its first national elections in two decades in November 2010.

Since the early 2000s, China's debt profile in Sri Lanka has increased rapidly, with estimates indicating that over 20% of the overall debt stock is owed to China. Beijing's lending has been opaque on high-interest loans and has often contributed to several white elephant projects. Much of this lending comes from Chinese policy banks, such as China Exim Bank and China Development Bank that is entrusted to further Beijing's economic and commercial

The challenge will be how India and other countries use this opportunity to restore strategic balance in the region.

China has appointed a new ambassador to Afghanistan, signaling its growing support for the Taliban. While other countries have not formally recognized the emirate, China's decision to appoint a new ambassador demonstrates its willingness to make its support more explicit without de jure recognition. China has already signed oil and mining deals with the Taliban, and has shown interest in investing in Afghanistan's mineral deposits.

China's rulers have a problem. They are not sure if they can continue to portray the image of a country interested in a peaceful rise without this coming into direct conflict with a desire to reassert newly defined core interests.

US crackdown on economic espionage could hurt research and innovation

New Delhi must sharply raise its preparedness to deal with a Beijing that seems bent on aggression

With the traditional liberal order appearing agile, new questions on international security and peacemaking have come to the fore. In the current context, global players are according Afghanistan greater strategic importance. As NATO troops continue to make headway in that region into the safe havens of ISIS, and with US posturing purportedly getting more robust, China’s role in Afghanistan merits scrutiny. Even though China’s involvement, mi

Chinese influence in Africa is high on the global agenda, as China within just a few decades has become a key political and economic power in the continent. Indeed, its emergence as a dominant economic and political actor might be the most important development in Africa since the end of the Cold War. This paper analyses China's economic and political relations with Africa beginning in the 1990s. It argues that the concern is not that China has e

As in Bandung 60 years ago, there is little consensus in Asia on how to build a new regional order. Prickly nationalism and persistent territorial disputes are making Asia into a geopolitical tinderbox. China's growing power has made it an attractive economic partner as well as the prospective political hegemon.

Well aware of China's growing influence in the Bay of Bengal and the changing power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region, Japan is now presenting itself as an alternative benefactor. With an eye toward Beijing, can the emergence of Japan in this region prove to play a balancing role?

As a rising China becomes the most important extra-regional partner for India's neighbours, India cannot simply wish away the Chinese influence in the subcontinent. The only way to limit the scope and structure of China's security profile is to expand India's own cooperation, including in the defence domain, with all neighbours.

China, a late entrant in Latin America, has now emerged as the region’s major economic partner. Bilateral trade between the two stands today at more than USD 200 billion. By augmenting investments and trade in Latin America, Beijing has managed to project itself as an alternative to the United States, which had previously enjoyed overarching influence in the region. The US’ inability to lead Latin America into a path of sustainable econ

The fifth meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing was used by China to reinforce its engagement with Africa. It is significant that despite it being only a ministerial conference, six Heads of State and two Prime Ministers attended the opening session.

China has clearly made very significant strides in its Space capability. However, it is still a long way short of matching U.S. capabilities and alarm bells need not ring just yet. It will need to undertake significant reforms before it supplants the U.S. as the world's leading Space power.

New Delhi has made it clear that it does not see China as a "threat" to India. The official position reflects a correct assessment of our security environment. China poses a challenge, not a threat, to India.

The response to the country’s new defense budget suggests that Beijing continues to be tone deaf to regional anxieties.

Given the past Sino-Russian relations the longevity of their entente is moot. Clearly, India is not entirely without options in this geopolitical competition, the only problem is to get New Delhi to play the game.

The Chinese growth story, triggered and driven by its industrial growth, is truly amazing. But now that industrial growth is slowing down because of higher wages and higher standards of living, to remain competitive China would have to outsource its production to cheap labour countries or move to another growth area - services.

While one could consider the establishment of a space station by China as a potential for collaboration, it would be more prudent of India to consider the military implications of such a move. A manned space station provides a greater thrust to PLA's combative capability.

China will continue to shield Pakistan. The Wuhan spirit, if it ever existed, is gasping for breath — and New Delhi will have to firm up its response to China.