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The essence of any democratic system is the healthy functioning of political parties and consequently free and fair elections. Free and fair elections imply not only a legal institutional framework for the conduct of elections and a transparent electoral process.

An ORF Mumbai-SPGRC workshop has decided to launch a city-wide, age-appropriate awareness campaign to curb rising gender-related crimes in Greater Mumbai municipal corporation schools. It would try to sensitise children about sexual harassment and other gender-related crimes.

With a trade deal unlikely, New Delhi must calibrate the costs and benefits of the U.S. President’s political tour

India should work more closely with the members of the US Congress in order to strengthen the strategic relationship between the two largest democracies in the world.

The recent banking crisis in Henan throws light on the corruption that is rampant at the lower rungs of the Chinese bureaucracy.

Challenges mount for Joe Biden as the Democratic National Convention gets postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic and Trump sowed discord amongst Democr

As President Barack Obama reaches the twilight of his first term, he has to enter the grind yet again, go all out to try and convince the voters that he deserves another term.

Xi Jinping’s security purge gathers steam ahead of China’s leadership transition.

Whilst Jeb Bush, belonging to a family with two former US Presidents, still hasn't won the primaries, he has managed to conjure a lot of enthusiasm around his candidacy. Even though he has not emerged as the favourite of the GOP's large block of more moderate supporters, junior Bush is often been called the front-runner.

Should Yameen’s Opposition reconsider their campaign strategy for the 2023 polls before it is too late?

The Maldivian government has taken steps to curb the ‘India Out’ campaign, showcasing the strategic importance of India

While there is greater cohesion in the government’s response to India-centric development agreements, it is also seeking to keep the China relations

China’s recent anti-corruption campaign has been designed to plug any gaping holes in China’s national security.

Following President Obama's State of the Union address, polls show Obama leading the Republican Presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The next few months will tell us whether Obama will be able to convert this into another Presidential term.

The current US presidential campaign, which is about to come to a close, has been replete with spins disseminated by the spin-masters of President George Bush as well as Senator John Kerry.

Mitt Romney has already won the nomination race. This is when he needed to move towards appealing to the undecided voters and may be a few disgruntled democrats and liberals. Picking Paul Ryan is unlikely to help convince them.

As the election season heats up in the US, the language of fear and name calling is rampant within parties and between parties. Instilling fears of the other candidate into the minds of voters, through campaign rhetoric and negative ads and distributed many times over by the power of new media technologies, has emerged an important feature of the campaigns.

Irrespective of whether AAP delivers on all its promises or is somehow muscled out of office in a few months, it has proven something to all Indian media watchers. Social media buzz has helped in shaping the agenda for India's largest and most important city, making a newly formed political party into a serious player in just over a year.

The amount of money which are expected to be raised and spent in the campaigns leading to the US Presidential elections of 2016 are being seen as unprecedented. At the centre of this complex cycle between big money and US election campaigns are the new breed of organisations called the Super PACs.

The good old days of media diplomacy launched by Washington and London to justify the Iraq invasion seem to be getting over.The American and the British administration had successfully hijacked media spaces across the world to build legitimacy for the offensive on Iraq.

The "India Out" campaign in Bangladesh following the recent general election seems to be an attempt by the Opposition to further their political prosp

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

Almost 24 months after the Russian invasion, Kyiv and its NATO allies are nowhere near defining what victory would constitute

Since Ibrahim Solih’s election as president of Maldives in 2018, India and Maldives have been working to revive their previously strained relations. The relationship faces an enduring threat, however, in the form of the ‘India Out’ campaign spearheaded by opposition parties. Although limited to certain sections of the Maldivian polity, the campaign has fuelled anti-India public sentiments, in turn becoming consequential to India-Maldives re

If Hillary Clinton runs for office in 2016, it seems that she will be campaigning for herself as herself - an exceptional professional, a controversial former secretary of state, and a woman.

For over a year, China is running a huge anti-corruption campaign. More than 1,82,000 officials have been punished, including high ranking military officials, four national leaders and senior executives of state companies. However, this type of arbitrary and high-handed posture could backfire and become a catalyst for political crisis if it continues in the present way.

The elimination of nuclear weapons is a pre-condition for peace in the 21st century. This was the key message delivered by the Hon'ble Senator Douglas Roche, renowned campaigner for nuclear disarmament in his address to Indian experts at the ORF campus in New Delhi.

Vaccine equity in Massachusetts has been called the “best of the worst”; although doing better than other states in terms of equitable distributio

As the candidates of the 2022 Philippine presidential elections launch their campaigns, questions regarding democracy in the country and its sovereign

Going by the poll campaign build-up and history of the newly carved out tribal State of Chhattisgarh, chances of a hung house and a third front gettin

Over the last three decades, Australia and China have established mutually beneficial economic ties. However, Australia’s decision to ask for an independent enquiry into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, has led to a backlash from China. This brief examines the more important developments since 2015 that persuaded Australia to take measures aimed at protecting both its open economy and its democratic polity against China’s sys

It is time to pause to remind Prime Minister Modi of his campaign promise "minimum government, maximum governance". It is sad this is one promise being heard less and less of each passing day.

After a year of comparative stability in 2014, politics of hartal (street agitation) is back in Bangladesh. The country is almost paralysed for almost a month following strings of hartal staged by opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for its campaign to oust Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government.

In its attempt to assimilate the progressive faction of the Democratic Party, the former vice-president’s campaign is ceding ground on its promise o

Like Trump’s campaign style, Bolsonaro has launched an effective social media campaign to reach out to ordinary Brazilians.

The most critical area for India's response to climate change must be adaptation. It needs to invest in actions against the imminent threats posed by climate change irrespective of how the global discourse progresses. Investments must be made through innovative channels, using a mixture of capacity-building programmes, awareness campaigns, traditional solutions, and new technologies.

The Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' campaign, on the whole, seems out of sync with today's world where it doesn't matter where a product is made because even high exporting countries like China basically assembles parts made elsewhere in the world.

Post-demonetisation campaigning for cashless transactions as way to stamp out black money has been stepped up with cybercrime issue needed to be dealt