U.S. Mission / Eric Bridiers Courtesy: Wikipedia
8 October 2015

UNSC and sanctions: a balanced role

The sanctions against Iran impacted the country’s oil, banking, aviation, and other sectors, and had a major humanitarian impact. But neither is armed attack a more suitable method in most instances to address allegedly recalcitrant states. What then is the middle ground? And can the UNSC assume a more proactive role in this context?

NATO2 Courtesy:
10 October 2014

NATO Diaries

A rare opportunity to visit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels provides a good opportunity to assess the organisation’s functioning. Interactions with its officials brought out the challenges the alliance faces, and its constant efforts to remain relevant in Europe’s security landscape

Refugees in Sicily Courtesy: Vito Manzari/Wikimedia Commons
13 August 2014

Change EU’s refugee policy

A refugee policy that absolves more capable and resource rich nations of any responsibility towards transnational asylum seekers is archaic and has lived beyond its time. Keeping in mind the EU's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights, it is incumbent upon it to set new standards and reform its refugee policy

evening campfire_ukraine 4_210X140 Courtesy: Flickr
22 July 2014

The dangers of tightrope walking

Eastern Europe has seen tensions rise, increasing violence and a hardening of stands. Only the softening of the stark “either/or” choice currently being demanded by western powers as well as Russia will put an end to the precarious tightrope walking of east European governments and prevent their citizens from becoming victims of increased regional instability

Foreign Affairs March 2014 Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
4 April 2014

Eastern Europe Goes South

Many eastern European states who are part of the EU and were admitted only after being deemed compliant with the Copenhagen criteria have seen political parties in these countries become increasingly illiberal

ind jap Courtesy: generalising/Flickr
6 November 2013

The new Indo-Pacific core

The India-Japan alliance needs to be viewed through a prism broader than that of "containing" China, and by treating the Indian and Pacific oceans as a single entity. Such an alliance has the potential to strengthen the geopolitical security of India and Japan, along with that of all their allies and associates