dilma rousseff Courtesy: Brasília-DF
22 March 2012

Brazil: Distant yet similar and now a partner

Brazil and India’s commonalities are truly striking – multi-party coalitions, strong regional powers, and pressures between the executive, legislative and judicial pillars – and bilateral ties have recently acquired greater content. Can Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff’s visit give bilateral ties a further boost?

5564587370_fb077e785f Courtesy: freeedomania/Flickr
29 February 2012

Where is Syria headed?

As the al-Assad regime faces increasing international pressure to step down from power, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attempted to make political reforms recently. However, Syria has strong relations within West Asia and the denouement will profoundly impact developments in this region.

5455843055_b765d48e40 Courtesy: Al Jazeera English/Flickr
24 February 2012

West and Wahabi vs. Shia

The author outlines the partnership between NATO and Wahhabi extremists, and how the West assisted in an armed Sunni movement, which has spread to many countries in West Asia. Consequently, the Shia population suffers from serious discrimination at the hands of Wahabbi.

russia protests one Courtesy: VOA - Yuli Weeks/WikimediaCommons
7 February 2012

Russia’s growing nationalism

The India-Russia summit in 2011 was sandwiched chronologically between two events that received much greater exposure: the Gita scandal and the Russian protests. Is this a warning sign that Russia’s state-anointed xenophobia and nationalism could act as a dampener for the formerly solid Indo-Russian relationship?

Courtesy: PMO
3 January 2012

India-Japan: An Asian Partnership

India and Japan have designed their collaborations over the years to be a win-win for both sides. Now, they are willing to collaborate on long-term initiatives, based on intrinsic factors of inter-dependent competencies – rather than on the defence of an extrinsic threat of a common enemy.