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This paper evaluates deficiencies in India’s naval shipbuilding programme, and identifies factors that adversely impact naval warship construction in the country. It argues that despite considerable effort, India’s shipbuilding endeavours continue to suffer from systemic deficits that cannot be addressed through ad hoc policy interventions and short-term solutions. Through an assessment of strengths and weaknesses of India’s defence shipyar

With Male facing increasing domestic and foreign policy challenges, Mohamed Muizzu is possibly aiming at a reconciliation with India

Despite sharing a close historical relationship based on the Soviet Union’s support during the 1971 Liberation War, Bangladesh had for long been out of the scope of Russia’s foreign policy priorities. This is best exemplified by the fact that no Soviet/Russian foreign minister had visited the country until September 2023. However, amid Western sanctions due to its war in Ukraine and tensions with the US, Russia is seeking to reinvigorate ties

This paper analyses India’s participation in more than two decades of global climate politics. India has transitioned from a protest voice on the fringes of global climate policy to one that is actively shaping international efforts to combat climate change. Analysis of the drivers behind India’s negotiating positions on climate change thus far has focused on the competing motives of equity and co-benefits, which has however been insufficient

A year and a half since United States (US) President Joe Biden took the helm, both sides of the country’s political divide continue to debate whether the incumbent’s China policy is distinct from that of the Trump administration. The Republicans claim that Biden’s China policy has not veered away from Trump’s; the Democrats, meanwhile, argue that it is different. This brief weighs in on the debate, and finds that despite the Biden

After President Donald Trump’s 2017 visit to Asia, the Indo-Pacific region assumed greater significance in the United States’ foreign policy calculus, as articulated in the ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy Report’ released by the US Department of Defence. On 31 December 2018, Trump passed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA), which authorises US$1.5 billion in spending for a range of US programmes in East Asia and Southeast Asia to “develop

It offers a notable contrast that India’s ties with Russia haven’t taken off despite New Delhi’s keenness while its relationship with the US has expanded notwithstanding hesitations.

Discussions between the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) also saw a general agreement that the Taliban victory in Afghanistan will lead to a civil war with disastrous consequences for Pakistan

The future of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary conglomerate linked to Russian foreign policy, is uncertain, raising questions about its global footprint.

China has enacted a National Security Law for the special administrative region of Hong Kong. The provisions of the law can be used to curb peaceful dissent and enhance Beijing’s control over the region. It has the potential to not only change Hong Kong’s legal and political autonomy, but also alter its status as a global financial centre. This paper offers an overview of the national security law and its implications for the ‘one country,

It might be interesting to analyse our diplomatic handling of China and Pakistan on a comparative basis. These two countries pose the most difficult and complex foreign policy challenges to us. Is our approach to both countries similar, or there are differences in the way we engage them?

The global order is fast-changing; the field of International Relations (IR), less so. Despite the rise of other countries in economic and geopolitical terms, the field of IR continues to be dominated by the West and its theories, methods and policy concerns. The idea of ‘Global IR’ proposed in this brief aims to make the field more inclusive and universal. After outlining the major elements of a Global IR paradigm, the brief suggests that In

Both President Obama and Prime Minister Modi have seized the moment to reinvigourate the bilateral ties. If Modi has put America at the very centre of his dynamic foreign policy strategy, Obama appears eager to work with what is undoubtedly a more vigorous and action-oriented government in Delhi.

There is no reason to believe that we will witness some change in Pakistan’s foreign policy.

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

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

Indo-Japanese relations have witnessed a paradigm shift since 2000 when both countries launched a global partnership in order to address a range of issues affecting regional and global peace and prosperity. Systematic efforts made by the leaders of both countries since then have strengthened their partnership. Until very recently, their interactions were mainly limited to economic issues, but today they cover a wide spectrum of subjects including

India and South America have barely managed to maintain minimal bilateral ties for the last several decades. Absent strong ties in geography, what India and South America have instead is a shared post-colonial history. Colonised by European powers for several centuries, both began their journey as independent countries under conditions of underdevelopment and having inexperienced polities with a limited foreign policy agenda. Today, it is not onl

Worsening climate change will have impacts on global politics, creating new vulnerabilities as well as opportunities. India, given its emerging power status and high vulnerability to climate impacts, holds a key position in global climate action. This brief looks at the ways in which India has used climate policies to gain leverage. India has sought to incorporate the geostrategic uses of climate change into a wider shift in its foreign policy, i

This episode illustrates the danger facing Indian foreign policy from domestic political developments, increasingly centered on religious conflict.

Professor Joseph Nye,Dean, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, who visited ORF recently, gave an e-mail Interview to Dr. Harinder Sekhon, Senior Fellow, on US foreign policy trends, especially in West Asia and the future of Indo-US relations.

India is assuming the leadership of SCO and G20. While the two groupings have divergent goals, Delhi will need to ensure that the concerns of developing nations are not ignored. An assertive foreign policy that seeks to shape and steer conversations will help

The two most-important objectives of foreign policy is ‘security’ — both external and internal — and ‘economy’.

Through its actions in Ukraine, Russia has challenged the global order in fundamental ways and India’s foreign policy won’t be immune from its reverberations

We need a foreign policy approach that thinks beyond event management.

There is a need for a strong foreign policy, particularly with regard to the India's immediate neighbourhood, according to a former secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

A presidential visit underlines the continuing salience of Africa in India’s foreign policy matrix.

Both India and Russia need to start thinking strategically about the Central Asian region, not letting emotions guide their foreign policy decisions. This was the consensus reached at a conference organised recently in Delhi.

This brief offers a way to rethink the ongoing dispute between India and Bangladesh over the former’s plan to build a high dam on River Barak (known as Surma-Kushiyara and Meghna in Bangladesh) at Tipaimukh in the state of Manipur. It identifies the origins of different sources of water for Bangladesh’s Haor, the region that is widely feared to be under threat by India’s planned dam. The brief recommends the conduct of a comprehensive study

This paper argues that even when the India-Japan-Australia minilateral is inspired by a need to ensure their interests against the current global power transition, it remains limited in its aim: to restrain China from achieving regional hegemony as it may threaten the liberal security order in the region. In the face of China’s rise and the US’ retrenchment, Asia’s regional powers are hedging their bets on a regional security order that is

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

The strong reactions to the non-inclusion of American firms in a major Indian military procurement tender, in the backdrop of proposed aggressive weapons sales by the Americans, paint a contrasting picture that could influence India-US defence relations in the near future. This Paper looks at the entire gambit of Indo-US Defence relations and, based on past experiences and ongoing deliberations, the challenges ahead.

The dynamics of the India-US relationship under the Trump administration bear significantly on the two countries’ security partnership. This relationship, however, is being challenged by President Donald Trump’s increasingly apparent transactional worldview. As witnessed in the case of the United States’ relations with its allies and partners across Europe and Asia, Trump has often linked US defence commitments and partner nations’ securi

From all accounts, the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal on August 2-3 was a success. It was also a demonstration of the BJP-led government's neighbourhood policy which seems to be at the core of country's foreign policy.

With the advent of globalisation and increased interconnectivity, it has become less difficult for offenders in India to escape to foreign jurisdictions and avoid prosecution in the country. The importance of extraditing fugitives and bringing them before Indian courts cannot be stressed enough. Apart from providing timely justice and grievance redressal, it also serves as a deterrent against potential fugitives. However, India’s success rate i

The role of legitimacy in India’s approach to the doctrine of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) and Humanitarian Interventions (HIs) has not received as much attention as it is due. The following paper evaluates India’s evolving views on R2P and HIs through the prism of legitimacy. It also demonstrates why the outcome of an HI, whether through the medium of the R2P or otherwise, matters as much as motives. Most Indian debates about R2

Aspiring to become a US$30-trillion economy by 2047, surrounded by hostile nations, and leading the idea of multipolarity in a bipolar world, India needs to articulate a grand strategy that has been missing in its statecraft. With the necessary conditions for such an endeavour in place, it is time for Bharat, under Narendra Modi’s third term as prime minister, to thread the three core aspects of executing such a grand strategy: articulating the

Speculations are rife about India possibly inviting Australia for the next Malabar naval exercise—which COVID-19 has caused to be moved to 2021.[1] If true, this would represent a break from the past and signal a change in the Asian strategic environment. Over the past few years, India has consistently resisted including Australia in the exercise, despite the latter’s willingness. The only other time that Australia was included in the Malabar

The Western Indian Ocean Region (WIOR) is linked to India in several ways, yet it remains conspicuous in its absence from India’s foreign policy discourse. This lack of attention is now beginning to reverse as external players stake their geopolitical claims in the region. India has responded by reorienting its own nautical outlook towards WIOR and building friendly relationships with African countries that straddle the region. This bri

The paper examines how the Nuclear Suppliers Group has evolved over the years and the role the Group defines for itself. It also attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of the consequences of India's NSG-membership.

The United Nations Security Council has emerged as the key arena and barometer for evaluating the promise and progress of accommodating new, rising powers in the international system. The case of India provides one of the best examples of a rising power coming to terms with its increased power, role and expectations of itself and of other powers, great and small, in negotiating its place in the reformed Council as a permanent member. This paper b

This paper explains Russian co-option of India into the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) at a high level of participation in September 2019 and the range of agreements involved. It argues that the co-option was the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dissatisfaction with the economic outcomes so far for the Russian Far East of “northeast Asian regional cooperation.” Moscow related this behaviour to skewed priorities of East Asia’s �

India and the US are poised to expand agricultural cooperation with the hope of bringing about a "Second Green Revolution" in India. Cooperation in this area would, however, need to take into account the interests of Indian farmers as well as issues related to bio-diversity and the environment.

Since the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, Indonesia has endeavoured to play a leading role in shaping Southeast Asia’s regional security architecture; this continues to be true amidst the more recent shifts taking place in the global geopolitical landscape. Accordingly, the nature of Jakarta’s contributions towards Southeast Asian security reflects the dynamics of its national foreign policy dec