MauricioPiece2 Courtesy: India Today
29 February 2024

Middle East demands new frontiers of diplomacy

Just as September 11, 2001 unfolded a new chapter of the world order, as December 17, 2010 awakened the "Arab Spring," so October 7, 2023, has become a date that has unforgettably changed the Middle East's foreign policy and geopolitical dynamics. The existential paradigm of Israel and Palestine has adopted a war axis without turning back but has necessitated reevaluating diplomacy and recalibrating priorities.

israel-hamas Courtesy: CivisDaily
17 January 2024

Israel-Palestine: two states … or one?

The Oslo Accords’ two-state solution for Palestine-Israel, visualised Gaza and the West Bank as self-governing entities under the Palestinian Authority. That political hope existed in an expanding global economy led by the U.S. and secured by American armies, with the promise of capital flows and investments to develop Palestine on its way to statehood. All this changed in the 2000s, as both Israelis and Palestinians became significant regional actors.

Screenshot 2023-11-29 at 6.07.50 PM Courtesy: The Indian Express
29 November 2023

Hamas’ ideology minus trust

Hamas faces an existential crisis in Gaza now that the Israeli army has captured its military headquarters and operating tunnels in northern Gaza. So far Israel has successfully ignored international pressure to limit its ground operation. In between are the Gazans, caught within an ideology they don’t trust.

Bill_Clinton,_Yitzhak_Rabin,_Yasser_Arafat_at_the_White_House_1993-09-13 Courtesy: The Atlantic
9 November 2023

Hamas’s Jihad vs. Arafat’s struggle

By blending Islam, Marxism-Leninism, Arab nationalism, and Third World radicalism during the 1960s, Yasser Arafat succeeded beyond expectations, in impactfully putting the Palestinian question forward for international attention. The spoiler was Hamas, with its jihadi calls for the cause of Palestine and rejection of peace initiatives.

Screenshot 2023-10-26 at 2.00.04 PM Courtesy: Nikkei Asia
26 October 2023

The narrative is the war

The Israel-Hamas War has shown the devastating impact of disinformation as a strategy of unconventional warfare. This narrative-led approach begins before hostilities start and seeks to set the agenda for leaders, their militaries and geopolitics. Democratic societies like India must prepare for similarly coordinated strategies and build societal resilience to manipulation.

netanyahu-gallant Courtesy: The Jerusalem Post
19 October 2023

The unprecedented days of October

The October 7 intrusion of Hamas into Israel has exposed a respectable military institution and one of the most influential intelligence agencies, impacting their image in a contest where prestige is crucial. It weakens the Palestinian Authority internally and abroad, diminishes any peace processes, buries hope of a two-state solution, and marks the beginning of an unprecedented phase of war with repercussions far beyond the region.

GettyImages-1272675620 Courtesy: The Intercept
18 October 2023

West Asian quagmire

There are multiple threads running through the Israel-Hamas conflict, and multiple interests. The long-running cast of the Arab and Western worlds are on site, but now so is a newly-assertive Qatar. Two others are potential players: the expanded BRICS grouping and India, which will soon co-invest in the India-Middle East Europe Corridor. Will they be drawn into the West Asian quagmire?

Screenshot 2023-10-12 at 3.12.30 PM Courtesy: The Independent
12 October 2023

Multiple mediators for the Middle East

The Israel-Hamas conflict can further destabilise a world already weighed down by the Ukraine war and U.S.-China tensions. Escalation is inevitable, unless Europe recovers its traditional mediating role of advocating for ceasefire, dialogue and negotiated solutions, the Axis of Resistance desists, and the BRICS-11 play balancer. For the first time, there are many actors in an arena where the US was accustomed to being a soloist.

The Other Quad Courtesy: Samirsinh Dattopadhye Blog
18 November 2021

The Other Quad

Last month, at a hybrid meeting, the Foreign Ministers of India, the U.S., Israel, and the UAE set up a forum for quadrilateral cooperation. In the many issues discussed, the technology dimension shows the most potential for collaboration, with unique contributions of expertise and resources available from each country's tech hubs: Bengaluru, Silicon Valley, Dubai and Tel Aviv.

cyber attacks on critical infrastructure: is india ready? Courtesy: Twitter | @ColPipe
27 May 2021

Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure: Is India ready?

The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. has underlined the importance of cyber security in critical infrastructure. India has not escaped the brunt of a recent global surge in cyber attacks. Though New Delhi has taken steps to protect critical infrastructure, problems in information sharing of threat vulnerabilities impede an effective response.