Courtesy: HarperCollins Publishers India
Tilak Devasher’s book on the Pashtuns brings out the dynamics of the Pashtun, their code, their relationship with Islam and with Pakistan. It contextualizes the current geo-political challenges in South Asia, making it required reading for those who want to understand not only the Pashtuns but regional strategic and security dynamics.
Courtesy: Narendra Modi/Facebook
India will be president of the G20 in 2023. The world’s most influential economic governance body is facing an existential crisis, where the major powers have fallen out. With geopolitical currents redefining geo-economics, India needs to be ready to emerge as the chief global diplomat.
Courtesy: TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s July visit to Iran was a geopolitical reset for both countries. The collapse of the JCPOA and the Ukraine crisis has strategically united Iran and Russia against their common adversary, the U.S. Russia is now a credible alternative to fill the investment vacuum for Iran’s defence, trade and energy sectors.
Courtesy: Juggernaut
In his new book, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran demystifies China's imagined belief of itself as the Middle Kingdom. Contemporary China's propensity to cut and paste history has resulted in China's resentment of India based on a limited understanding of Indian history and of China's past recognition of India as an advanced civilisation which impacted Chinese culture. Today the West recognises India's potential to match China, with depth and skills, over the long term.
Courtesy: The Print
Pro-Khalistan organisations have collaborated with the ISI to disseminate anti-India narratives and influence the Indian diaspora. While this has little traction within the country, there is a need for India to extend support to those expatriate Indian communities which are actively countering the misinformation spread by these organisations and Pakistan-sponsored fringe groups.
Courtesy: The Japan Times
China's 2022 defence budget reflects the seriousness of the Communist Party aims to fully modernise the People’s Liberation Army by 2027. Given the on-going border competition, it is crucial for India too, to optimise budgetary resources, intensify restructuring and enhance indigenous defence production, thereby improve power projection capability.
Courtesy: AP News
Themes of rivalry between China and the U.S., of China's readiness to fill the void left by the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, dominate accounts of recent developments in that country. What does China's inclusion in the power game in Asia, with a geopolitical vision remarkably different from that of the West, mean for the developments in Afghanistan?
Courtesy: Macmillan
The contemporary fate of Hong Kong, which has known freedom and rule of law, offers in microcosm a glimpse of what could happen if the liberal world order is up-ended. In this book, Mark Clifford convincingly argues that what happens in Hong Kong doesn’t stay in Hong Kong, as he draws connections between the techniques used to end freedom there with China’s penetration and manipulation of open societies elsewhere.
Courtesy: BBC
The upcoming Summit for Democracy hosted by U.S. President Biden, has high expectations from him. With trust in the U.S. having suffered badly, it remains to be seen how much confidence the democracies at the summit will have in American efforts at restoration of world leadership.
Courtesy: Shutterstock
In 'A Grand Strategy: Countering China, Taming Technology, and Restoring the Media', a new book on China's technological ambitions, author William J. Holstein explains China's push to advance its technological prowess, exploring the link between technology, politics and economics in today's world. In this podcast, he tells us more about this connection, which has often been overlooked by the American media.