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The predominant view not only within India but globally, is that China sees Tibet solely through the prism of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Analysing sources that illuminate China’s internal debates and discussions about its stakes in Tibet, this paper finds that unlike in the past, China no longer views Tibet as a national security barrier. Rather, Tibet has become China’s main gateway into the economic hinterland of South Asia. Wit

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea are traditionally viewed through the standpoint of China’s military expansionism, where the threats are more visible. The environmental impacts of China’s activities, which will be long-lasting, remain underexplored. China’s island construction, drilling activities, and overfishing have pushed the marine ecosystem of the region to the brink of collapse, and the destruction of coral reefs a

The issue of 100 per cent foreign direct investment in defence keeps getting muddied by the day, with various industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry apparently flip-flopping on an hourly basis.

It is common knowledge that Corporates control most of the electronic media. That being the case, how has the media turned upon the hand that feeds? Intra corporate warfare?

As in the world's many democracies, parliamentary polls in Maldives too have underlined the coalition reality of the times. The polls have also proved the add-ons do count, as former President Nasheed had proved in his second-round victory in 2008.

In Maldives, the fledgling democracy is now getting exposed to the inevitability of an issue-based confrontation between the Legislature and the Judiciary. But the stake-holders need to handle the issues and the attendant controversies with the knowledge, accommodation and sensitivity that they demand.

Indians need to realise that the time has come for decision-making and thinking which is multi-year, though not in the Five Year Plan kind of a way. What is needed are steps that go beyond partisan approaches and election-cycles aimed at providing the desperately needed transformation of the way India manages its governmental system.

The process of government formation in Nepal seem to be going nowhere if one is to go by the record of recent political parleys between the leaders of the three 'big political parties' of Nepal.

With the elections underway in India, eyes are now on the outcome of the polls, likely to be known by May 16. Wider belief is that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may win the keenly fought elections.

The govt’s budget needs to expand by at least one-fourth to accommodate the necessary capital spend.

In the past few weeks, Afghanistan has received a stream of important visitors from western capitals that are in a position to preside over its destiny ¿ U.S. National Security Council Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, British Secretary of State for Defence John Reid, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Access to higher education has been a long-standing policy concern in India. Reservation for different social groups at the central and the state levels has been a typical policy response.

Syria and Iraq are no longer just a do-and-kill struggle being enacted by extreme radical Islamists in their brutal search for a Caliphate. The Big Boys - US and Russia -- are now out in the open, the gloves are off and mind games are now being played.

We the people of Iraq, who in all our forms and groupings undertake to establish our union freely and by choice, to learn yesterday's lessons for tomorrow, and to write down this permanent constitution...

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.

The political landscape of Europe is steadily changing, and the sheen of Right-wing populism seems here to stay.

BIMSTEC member states have issued, on occasion, joint statements recognising the importance of holistic public healthcare and the need for alliances. Yet, intra-BIMSTEC collaborations so far have been limited, mostly focused on traditional medicine. Amidst COVID-19, the region’s states have an opportunity to take their health-sector partnerships to a “new normal”.  Given the highly endemic nature of communicable diseases and the porous bor

While India cannot match China's economic heft which is luring sections of the European political elite, it can entice Europe with the values which it espouses.

One can see the problem of illicit financial flow in a narrow view in terms of loss of tax revenue, but the more often missed out perspective is that these illicit flows create imbalances in the global economy that upset the efficiency of capital. Illicit financial flows cannot be curtailed without the collaborative effort of both developing as well as developed countries

As the US provokes Iran, the onus is on Europe to somehow stand by its end of the nuclear deal

Cutting oil and gas out of the climate conversation won’t work because – like it or not – they will underpin the global economy for years to come

In less than a week, more than 100 people have been killed by terror group Boko Haram in the northern part of Nigeria. This brutal Islamic group remains a significant problem confronting the democratic government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Brazilian economy is in a new period of transition. Its challenges today are of tax incentives in order to steer foreign investments towards the domestic shores and curbing rising inequality and urban-rural divide.

The politics of Centre-State relations has been a powerful force in shaping India's foreign policy. India's rapid economic growth has furthermore given a new found influence to regional parties, leading to their disproportionate influence over the formulation of foreign policy.

Tamil Nadu has a history of Dalit-centric violence, which has erupted independently in the southern districts, and also the western Dharmapuri belt, where Naxalites have thrived and revived from time to time.

The year 2022 saw the global economic outlook deteriorate amidst high inflation, fiscal tightening, and supply chain uncertainties arising from both the Russia-Ukraine war and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after expanding by some 5 percent in 2021, contracted in the first half of 2022. This brief makes a case for gender lens investing (GLI) as a means to boost women’s participation in economic act

Both India and China seem to be fixated on a "status quo plus" option, in that each side wants something more than the current LAC. Clearly, much more work needs to be done. For the moment, incremental progress is better than no progress at all.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is threatened by the formation of the Narendra Modi government in Delhi, have been reactivating networks of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad in Kashmir since May/June 2013.

Is the United States in the process of creating a brand new Muslim bloc? If that be the case, it would know that the execution of the plan necessarily involves the cessation of Kosovo from Serbia in the name of "Self-Determination". This, Russia will not allow at any cost. Belgrade is Moscow's Slav ally. And, in a complex way, the Albanian-Serb and the Washington-Moscow stand-off links up with the global scramble for energy source

An independent country for the Kashmiris is impossible and can remain only as a dream, said Sardar Mohd. Abdul Qayyum Khan, former President and former Prime Minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), while delivering an address at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, on September 26, 2005.

The Communist Party of India (Maoist), which came into existence on September 21,2004, through the merger of the Maoist Communist Centre of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist--People's War ) ,

Disputes with Pakistan and China limit India’s sea projection. But the country has a growing need to protect vital sea routes and this changes its approach. Ties with America and Russia influence New Delhi’s posture

China has a somewhat limited aim to keep India as a neutral in their real battle that for pre-eminence in East Asia, where they are pitted against the Japan-US combine. India has no real stakes in the conflict, and it is not as if Japan supports the Indian position on our borders with China or Jammu & Kashmir. Yet, New Delhi needs to handle the issue with a great deal of care.

The purpose is to create, through law, a permanent threat to hang over every single Muslim head in India

India has the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, making it critical for the country to manage maritime security challenges in this space. However, given the transnational nature of most maritime threats, India must cooperate with other Bay littorals and the major powers to address these issues. The Bay of Bengal is a vital part of the Indo-Pacific geostrategic construct, and a secure Bay is fundamental to a stable Indo-Pacific. By addressing

Since the toppling of the Taliban government in 2001, India and Afghanistan have witnessed a significant strengthening of their bilateral ties. As Afghanistan's stability is important for India's own, New Delhi has readily supported the growth of democracy in its neighbour, battered as it is by many years of conflict and instability. This paper maps out the nature of India's relationship with Afghanistan, focusing on the two nations' economic, po

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of healthcare systems and strained economies across the globe. India and countries in Africa have emerged as hotspots due to the dual burden of large populations and weak health infrastructure. This lack of infrastructure, coupled with decreasing investments in healthcare over the years, has left their societies and governments underprepared and potentially overwhelmed by COVID-19. As developing reg

The Teesta is a major source of sustenance for India and Bangladesh as agriculture has evolved in the catchment areas of the river in both the countries.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, India established official ties with the five former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; so did China. In recent years, both India and China have come up with different strategies to strengthen their respective ties with these resource-rich economies, collectively called the Central Asian Republics (CARs). China’s strategy is the ambitious Belt and Roa

As two great civilizations and influential Asian powers, India and China share common responsibilities to ensure peace and stability in the region and the world at large.

Britain's former Chief Scientific Advisor and Head of the Government Office of Science, Sir David King, has said that both India and China should take a leadership role at the global platform for Climate Change.

The Doklam crisis of 2017 illustrates the increasing tension in India and China’s nuclear relationship. There are elements of stability and instability in such relationship, and this brief examines them. Stability, on one hand, is derived from a history of military and political restraint, ongoing institutionalised negotiations, and growing economic relations. However, the continuing border dispute and disagreement on a non-demarcated Line of A

Even as India has had a long-running debate about many aspects of its nuclear doctrine, most importantly, its No First Use (NFU) policy, the country continues to maintain the NFU. This paper makes a critical assessment of recent arguments made by Christopher Clary and Vipin Narang that India may be reconsidering its NFU policy because of counterforce “temptations”. The paper dissects the evidence they present—statements made by mostly retir

This paper considers and explains the shifts and consistencies in India’s engagement with structures of global trade governance beginning from the Uruguay round of trade negotiations in late 1980s. It makes three major arguments. First, that although India has participated actively in global trade negotiations since the establishment of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) it was only under the present-day trade governance institut

Over the years, sanctions have emerged as a preferred foreign-policy tool for many States, especially in the West. Sanctions serve a number of purposes, including the application of economic and political pressure on specific governments with a view to change their stance on a particular issue. International organisations, throughout the 20th century, used sanctions to impose their positions. The League of Nations first imposed sanctions in 1921

India's ability to separate the Palestinian issue from Indo-Israeli relations could be tested in the future. As the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories deteriorates and Israel faces greater international pressure to negotiate an end to the conflict, it may not be long before Tel Aviv turns to New Delhi for diplomatic support.

Common values and shared concerns provide a natural corollary for Indo-Israeli cooperation, according to experts. Highlighting the various avenues for cooperation, they especially pointed out defence and agriculture sector.

This Issue Brief focuses on the reasons for the need to have sub-regional integration and cooperation between the four South Asian countries of BBIN--Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. It also looks at previous attempts made at sub-regional cooperation by countries in the region and the areas of potential cooperation.