Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
China’s resurrection of the ancient Silk Road is ambitious, sprawling, hegemonic. Its pre-European origins, though, lay in a criss-crossing of nameless caravan routes on which Indian cotton was traded as vigorously as Chinese silk, tangible proof of the interdependence of two ancient civilisations over two millennia
Courtesy: MEA/ Flickr
The Indo-Pacific region is home to some of the largest and most rapidly growing economies as also powerful military forces. Nuclear threats, international terrorism and climate change are some of the issues that define the region. Uncertainty dogs relations among the four nations in the top league—U.S., China, India and Japan—but what is emerging is a hawkish, policy stance from the U.S. as opposed to an isolationist outlook apprehended earlier
Courtesy: Wikipedia
A strategic coming together of the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India was close to fruition some years ago, impelled initially by the tsunami of 2004. The spirit of the enterprise remains alive even now, and there are many merits in India joining the quad, but such an arrangement can skew existing Asian equations, jeopardising the Act East policy
Courtesy: IB Times
The era of globalisation is drawing to a close and a new one is emerging—an era of bilateralism over globalisation, of domestic over foreign focus, and reality-based policy-making
Courtesy: Wikipedia
There is a stark divergence between how the West views the world and how those outside it do. It is possible to oversimplify the equation, to portray the West as cynically self-interested. The West and countries like India need to reach a shared understanding of how the liberal international order can be reformed so it may be salvaged
Courtesy: Systemic Alternatives
The contours of globalisation are being reshaped. The Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump mark a strong anti-globalisation sentiment even as leaders in China, India and Russia successfully marry nationalist rhetoric with a cleverly crafted overseas strategy, premised on the very tenets of globalisation. There seems to be a ‘pause’ in the unbalanced progress of globalisation of the last three decades—and this could have many positive outcomes
Courtesy: The Wire
China has launched the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) Initiative in an attempt to rebuild the ancient Silk Road with proposed land and sea routes to promote infrastructure, trade, and investment in the regions that it will thus connect. The challenge will be to attract private financing to support the official and multilateral ones
Courtesy: Flickr
Prince Salman’s accession to the throne after the death of Saudi King Abdullah on 23 January 2015 has been a game changer, both domestically and in West Asian politics. Within days, he sidelined rivals within the House of Saud, and took on Iran with a confrontational policy. But two years later, the results of his new strategy disappoint
Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
The West Asian monarchies are being forced to ‘look East’ due to a range of factors: the rise of the Islamic State, their need to boost falling oil revenues and doubts about the United States continuing to remain a guarantor of regional stability. Quite coterminously, India is looking towards the Gulf for energy security besides fulfilling other geostrategic goals: this is an ‘East’ and ‘West’ where the ‘twain will meet
Courtesy: MEA flickr
The choice of the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be the chief guest at India’s 2017 Republic Day celebrations is an indication of the enhanced attention that the Indian government is according the Gulf countries. Many trade interests ally India to the UAE, but a deeper engagement is called for even as instability grows in the region