Courtesy: Presidential Communications Office
The West Asia conflict has disrupted global stability, impacting ASEAN economies and diplomacy. As chair, the Philippines balances its alliance with the U.S. and regional neutrality, while Indonesia and Malaysia reflect domestic support for Arab states. With energy shocks, remittance risks, and inflation rising, ASEAN’s limited influence is evident. Has ASEAN once again been drawn into a vortex of crises beyond its control?
Courtesy: Iran Front Page
The transformation of higher education and research in Iran over the last twenty years is a cautionary tale in cultural sociology and political economy. Iran has transitioned from a global colleague with high rates of international collaboration to an isolated, ideologically purged state that has pivoted its innovation engine toward survival. The outward migration of talented Iranians is a terminal threat to the nation’s long-term prosperity.
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: Andreea Campeanu/Getty Images
The war in West Asia is crowded with armaments and players, but there is one presence that is LOB, or Left Out of the Battle: that of Europe. The Continent is peripheral in the current crisis. Structural constraints, strategic dependence on the U.S., internal political divisions, and a shift in Europe’s geopolitical priorities since the war in Ukraine, has reduced its strategic weight.
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.
Courtesy: Shutterstock
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: Bayerischer Rundfunk
During the week of the Munich Security Conference, Munich transformed into a temporary capital of global diplomacy. Gateway House participated and hosted a Side Event, “Multipolarity without Multilateralism: India, Europe and the Future of Global Order” on February 14. This diary captures observations from the conference and the city, reflecting on Europe’s evolving priorities and how the continent assesses its role in an increasingly fragmented world.
Courtesy: Getty Images
Germany’s prospects in 2026 are defined by tension rather than momentum. The country is neither in crisis nor comfortably on a path to renewal. Instead, it is engaged in a difficult process of adjustment, seeking to reconcile fiscal restraint with strategic ambition, social protection with demographic reality, and climate leadership with industrial competitiveness.
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.