Courtesy: AFP
It is important to take an objective review of PM Modi’s visit to Jerusalem and its implications for India’s security. New Delhi will have to demonstrate its strategic autonomy by managing heterogeneous and often contrapuntal relationships and strike a balance in its ties with the U.S. and Israel on the one hand and Iran and the Arab world on the other hand.
Courtesy: Gateway House
The Arctic region is at the crossroads of the dramatic environmental shifts and heightened conflict that are shaping global politics today. In the region, major geopolitical events and enduring rivalries necessitate a logic of competition, yet coordination on transboundary issues remains important. This echoes the challenges facing oceans, ecosystems and planetary problems in global governance more broadly, in which political efforts yield frustratingly incremental, yet indispensable, results.
Courtesy: AFP
The U.S.–Israel war against Iran will alter the geopolitical landscape of West Asia and adversely impact the global economy, including India. Vali Nasr, Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, analyses the conflict and its implications in an exclusive conversation with Nayanima Basu.
Courtesy: Gateway House
Early indicators of the ongoing war in West Asia point to a conflict trajectory from the rapid decision to the controlled escalation to distributed strike capacity, advanced military integration and mounting regional exposure. Much like Johann Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, conflicts initiated based on assumptions of control can acquire a momentum of their own.
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The U.S. and Israel launched precise airstrikes on Iran, targeting nuclear facilities and senior leadership. Their aim is to weaken Iran’s nuclear programme and potentially induce regime change, while Tehran’s priority remains regime survival. The conflict’s duration will depend on whether it remains limited to missile exchanges or escalates into asymmetric warfare.
Courtesy: Gateway House
The assumption that the Iranian public will rise up against its religious and political leadership, seizing the opportunity provided by Israel and U.S. strikes against Iran, may not prove true. Iran’s civilisational structure is resilient, and its educated population may not like being dictated to by the West. Raja Karthikeya, a former international civil servant based in Tehran, examines the escalating U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, its regional and domestic implications and the tenacity of Iran’s political system amid external pressure.
Courtesy: Indian Navy
Over the last two decades, the Indian Navy has taken a quantum leap in modernising its fleet with stealth frigates, warships, submarines, and fighter planes. Its goal is to be the net security provider and first responder securing Sea Lines of Communication in the region. But it is still lagging behind its Indo-pacific naval partners and most important, its regional rival, China.
Courtesy: Gateway House
Iran has often stood at the crossroads of social and political metamorphosis and regional geopolitical recalibration, from the Islamic Revolution of 1979 to the attrition of the Iran-Iraq War. The current landscape reflects the convergence, once again, of internal pressures and sharper deterrence postures, that the social compact—from a Lockean and Rousseauian perspective—needs a new edition, and that timely diplomacy to prevent escalation is required.
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The U.S. demand for Greenland for security purposes, has alarmed Europe enough for talk of Article 5 of NATO’s collective defence agreement to be put on the discussion table. But can NATO survive without Article 5? And can Article 5 survive without the U.S. defence cover for Europe?
Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
Not long ago in the sweep of history, countries that had once been buried behind the Iron Curtain, and even some Soviet republics, were transformed into members of the solidly democratic club. Some of those that weren’t, such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, experienced mass revolts against rigged elections and corrupt misrule amid widespread public yearning to join the West. Free trade was again celebrated as an instrument of peace; Kant’s “democratic peace theory” enjoyed a revival.