Ivan Courtesy: Gateway House
8 October 2025

Unfolding Geopolitics Episode 23 | India renews engagement with Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will visit India on October 10, marking the first high-level Taliban visit since the group took over Kabul in 2021. Nayanima Basu discusses the purpose of this visit and the importance of engagement with Afghanistan. She explains the roles of China, which seeks business; Pakistan, which pursues political interests; and the U.S., which has a renewed interest in Bagram Air Base and its return to the country it abandoned.

ANI Courtesy: ANI
14 August 2025

Is Russia a Red Line for India?

U.S. President Trump will meet Russian President Putin on August 15. A positive outcome may mean removal of punitive U.S. tariffs on India for buying Russian oil and resolving its dilemma of placating a partner country with growing commercial, geopolitical and defence ties, or pursuing strategic autonomy, keeping its old friends and take an economic hit? Is Russia the red line for India?

Inc42 Courtesy: Defense News
26 June 2025

Drones are the game-changer

Warfare is changing its character, and drones are playing a big role in it. Technology that was first extensively used in the Vietnam war is a current conflict staple. With the increasing use of artificial intelligence, drones are becoming more powerful and useful.

Business Today (1) Courtesy: Gateway House
26 June 2025

Unfolding Geopolitics Episode 19 | Global gaze on terrorism

As part of India’s diplomatic outreach after Operation Sindoor, Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri and his delegation visited Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia and Russia. He spoke to Gateway House on how the thinking of countries needs to coalesce so that the global gaze is not just on terrorism but on Pakistan, which should be pressured to understand that the price for terrorism is far beyond what it can afford.

Joint Statement from the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Washington Courtesy: U.S. Embassy & Consulates in India
19 June 2025

Reappraising QUAD post Pahalgam

The July 2 meeting of the QUAD foreign ministers in Washington, D.C., restated all the commitments of the grouping, including a condemnation of the April 22 terrorist attacks on Pahalgam. Yet, none of the QUAD countries actually came to the aid of India, despite China being a present player in the fight, in full support of its partner Pakistan.

India Today (1) Courtesy: India Today
26 May 2025

India’s evolving defence doctrine

The Pahalgam attack has changed India’s strategic calculus. With Operation Sindoor, the country is moving towards a more assertive posture, consolidating its strategy around an evolving doctrine of Proactive Deterrence underpinned by Calibrated Coercive Capability. A strategic practitioner’s viewpoint is below.

Website articles  (17) Courtesy: Nayanima Basu
19 May 2025

India’s three-pronged war strategy

Operation Sindoor has established a “new normal” in India-Pakistan relations. It has also given the world a glimpse into the Narendra Modi government’s future strategy in countering terrorism supported by the Pakistani Army and ISI, and how New Delhi will manage the Kashmir dispute.

The New Indian Express Courtesy: The New Indian Express
19 May 2025

Post-Pahalgam diplomacy

Studying the reaction of key stakeholders to the India-Pakistan conflict, and how India’s diplomatic machine coped with it, is revealing. Some of the major powers like the U.S., raised the temperature, China expectedly stood by Pakistan while Russia once again proved a dependable friend. Unsurprisingly, South Asia had a consistently neutral stance toward the conflict.

Website articles  (5) Courtesy: PTI
9 May 2025

Three messages from Operation Sindoor

Operation Sindoor conveyed three messages: First, to Pakistan that it will have to bear the consequences of continuing to support terrorism. Second, to terrorists, that Bharat will inflict the same pain, if not more, than they inflict on Indian citizens. Third, to the world, that Bharat is resolute in responding to terrorism in a “measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible” manner.

Website articles  (4) Courtesy: Agence France-Presse
8 May 2025

Pakistan’s clash of ideology and identity

The on-going India-Pakistan tensions have obscured the grave issues Pakistan is facing on its western frontier with Afghanistan. The resurgence of Pashtun nationalism, the long-running Baloch insurgency and the growing resentment over Punjabi dominance is challenging Pakistan’s identity and ideology as protector of Islam. The Taliban under the Emir in Kandahar holds far greater moral authority than any general in Rawalpindi.