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The US threats and its troop presence in South Korea are alleged to have contributed to North Korean insecurity, but its drive to develop more nuclear weaponry cannot be understood without taking into account domestic dynamics. To bring about a genuine change in North Korea's behaviour, its internal dynamics will have to be considered.

The nature of work is changing, leading to the loss of some jobs and the creation of others that require radically changed skills. In India, as the requirements of this evolving labour market change, co-working spaces fulfil many of the new needs. The aim of this paper is twofold: to describe the development of the co-working industry in India, its driving factors, as well as the architecture, design and social aspects of the work environment; a

Can India, in its present state of economy, afford the colossal amount of expenditure and administrative confusion in creating new States? The answer is firmly in the negative. Therefore, it is advisable for the UPA Government to remain firm and refuse to accede to the demand for a new commission for the reorganisation of States.

The government has been firefighting since FY 2019 using mostly Band-Aids of the cheapest kinds.

With the South Korea-Japan spat escalating, it is unlikely that the US can play a mediatory role. The fallout of such dispute will affect the world economy

Choice of Antonio Guterres, for UN Secretary-General’s job, may have greater consequences for Sri Lanka than may have been considered/thought of previously

The Delhi Government's Bhagidari programme with all its pitfalls and challenges comes as a refreshing idea in the context of urban governance. Given its potential to transform state-ctizen interface, there is need to give it statutory backing. Also, there is enough space for forther improvement of the programme.

US President Barack Obama's popularity, as well as that of his party, has gone up after his shrewd handling of the lame-duck Congress session. Commentators are now calling him the 'comeback kid' just as they did Clinton in 1994.

Donald Trump’s idea of machine politics has not just conditioned his view of domestic politics, but also of international relations and US foreign policy

Emerging technologies have the potential to reshape our world. These innovations, also called disruptive technologies, have started to seep into the area of finding solutions for mobility. Is existing infrastructure prepared for such technological advancements? These and related themes were discussed in a roundtable organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on 8 February 2016. The roundtable, Urban Transportation and Disruptive Technologies

The next steps towards peace with Pakistan need to be thought out carefully to prevent the dialogue process from getting derailed or losing steam - two possibilities which seem to be staring in the face of policy makers on either side of the border.

NGOs that deter economic progress or infrastructure growth have to be actively discouraged. The agenda and priorities have to be Indian and not determined in some remote western city. The government, in turn, has to be transparent and active in providing solutions to environmental and human problems.

While acknowledging the fact that many of the larger NGOs have done phenomenal work in public welfare, a social activist in Chennai has said the motives behind the initiatives of some of them in the country have become questionable.

A suicide terrorist attack on 26 August in the capital city of Nigeria turned global attention on a little-known terrorist group which has potential of emerging as a threat to Western interests in Africa.

Nigeria voted on April 16th, 2011 for a new president. The result: political violence killing over 500 with the number only increasing and thousands of Nigerians injured and internally displaced.

The top priority of any nation in the post-9/11 era is to defend its territorial integrity. This goal faces a real threat from terrorists originating or based in foreign countries, said Mr Andrew T. Simkin, the Consul-General of the US in Chennai.

Saudi Arabia's Nitaqat system has achieved some early success. It has been able to generate jobs for the Saudi population. But its long term success is open to question. It remains to be seen whether 'Saudization' will be successfully implemented long term through quotas and threats of punishment.

Just because China now seems to be in a hurry to move on the border issue should not be cause for New Delhi to reciprocate. We need to weigh the issues carefully and see what serves our interest the best. Anyway, we are not likely to see a final resolution of the border issue in a hurry

The integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India is the ultimate solution to the Kashmir problem, said Dr. Subha Chandran at an interaction on 'Jammu & Kashmir: Internal Threats and External Interests' at the ORF Chennai Chapter.

Mr. Brajesh Mishra, former National Security Advisor and now Trustee of Observer Research Foundation, recently gave an interview to Mr. Karan Thapar. The interview was televised by CNN-IBN. Given below is the text of the interview"

The recent 'off-the-record' comment by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against "about 25% Bnagladeshis" has dented the India-Bangladesh relations. There is a need for us to show more sensitivity while dealing with Bangladesh, a country that has gone out of its way to improve its relationship with India.

The current refugee crisis in Europe is unlikely to end soon as one third of Syria's 20 million population are potential migrants, if the situation in the country itself will not change, says Jakob von Weizsaecker, Member of the European Parliament.

Like a bad dream, the Dr AQ Khan episode has returned to haunt the world. There are a number of reasons why it will do so in the coming days. First, it is one of the most serious crimes committed against humanity.

A 14th round of military talks ended with a joint statement but no real progress.

Deploying the "national security" argument against reform in the intelligence agencies is a fig leaf for defending cronyism, incompetence, inefficiency, and corruption. A proper regulatory mechanism can only strengthen national security, not weaken it. It is time to bring in facts and lessons from global best practices to this debate.

India's challenges in negotiating a new framework for internet governance do not lend themselves to the old clichés of Indian diplomacy. Instead, India must strive to find the appropriate balance between the multiple antinomies that define the debate.

As the NDA government recalibrates India's Kashmir and Pakistan policies, Delhi must do a much better job explaining the logic behind the cancellation of the foreign secretary talks, widely seen as abrupt.It must let the international community, especially Pakistan's friends, including the US, China and Saudi Arabia, know India is not abandoning the peace process with Islamabad.

The intolerant liberal in India considers all alternative opinion to be moronic and the right-wing ideologue describes opposition to their stated position as blasphemy. Both are unwilling to listen to the other, much less understand and accept a civilised debate. Consequently, both are equally dangerous.

As India evolves its cyber-fibre, it has many lessons to absorb from the Snowden episode. On the one hand, enforcement is a sine qua non of any law. On the other hand, the government needs to realise that cyberSpace is not your normal run-of-the-mill state highway that state agencies can regulate, patrol and police.

Bhutan's honeymoon with democracy seems to be facing its first challenge, that too from unexpected quarters. For a nation that boasts of measuring its national wealth in terms of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and not conventionally in GDP.

What the US gets wrong – and India gets right – about the Indo-Pacific

Thinking India can induce enough private investment just because of the size of its market is a big mistake

Noises of peace are once again emanating in Maoist insurgency hit-Nepal. The Maoists have expressed their desire to sit at the negotiating table, while, at the same time, creating a blood bath in different parts of the Himalayan Kingdom.

The concept of non-alignment originated during the Cold War as a ‘third way’ for nations wanting to remain neutral between the capitalist liberalism of the United States (US) and the communism of the Soviet Union. Officially founded during the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in April 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) today has 120 member nations, all of them from the Global South. Every African country, except for South Sudan, is a member

Mr Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad chief and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, addressed the ORF faculty on developments in West Asia

Frustration is understandable, but there’s evidence that Gandhian tactics are changing minds in the U.S.

Observer Research Foundation organized a day-long interaction between some of India?s well-known experts and commentators on the north-east on November 18, 2004. The primary objective of the Interaction was to collectively introspect on some of the issues which have troubling the region for more than half-a-century.

The Trump administration is egging China on to take action against its proxy, using its considerable leverage with the North Korean regime.

Since February, North Korea has fired off more than 30 ballistic missiles, more than the number fired previously by the country, ever.

आइए जानते हैं कि उत्‍तर कोरिया के इस मिसाइल परीक्षण का मकसद क्‍या है. क्‍या उसकी मिसाइलों की मारक क्षमता अमेरिका तक है. आखिर उत्‍तर कोरिया अपने मिसाइल परीक्षण से अमेरिका को

Two weeks back an unconfirmed media report stated that hackers from North Korea had illegally accessed Email Ids of students and graduates from the Korea University's Graduate school of Information Security.

The advancements that North Korea has made in terms of miniaturization of the nuclear device may be significant, particularly in the backdrop of long-range delivery vehicles. Having tested the longer-range missiles in recent months, threat to even the US has increased.

North Korean army, which is the fifth largest in the world with a very high artillery pile, should not to be under-estimated, according a former Indian military intelligence official.

China has to recognise that North Korean actions are triggering several developments that are not necessarily in the interests of China - like the major debates in Japan on becoming proactive in defending themselves, including the option of nuclearisation. Can a nuclearised East Asia be ruled out in the next decade if Pyongyang continues on the same path?

While on the surface, both the US (and South Korea and Japan) and China appear to have the goal of seeing a stable Korean Peninsula, there appear to be serious differences about what regional stability means.

That economic diplomacy through the Northeast has over-shadowed security-related concerns in India's regional diplomacy is a major departure from the past. Connectivity has been identified as a priority area of the Modi government.