SPP_8667 Courtesy: Government Law College, Mumbai
24 October 2019

Debate on the newly assertive India

The world has changed – and so has India in the last 70 years since independence. Its foreign policy has evolved from non-alignment to multipolarity and to proactive participation in various multilateral organisations. Building on the work of its predecessors, the Modi government’s diplomacy articulates India’s interests more forthrightly and pursues them more energetically

9780231179300 (1) Courtesy: Columbia University Press
24 October 2019

Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Gulf

This book examines concisely and readably how the discovery of oil and natural gas transformed the six oil kingdoms of the Gulf, but profligate energy consumption at home challenged the basis of this very prosperity. It goes on to look at how these countries dealt with the economic crises that struck them

48858480898_d65cd12503_c Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
17 October 2019

Bangladesh, India’s exemplary neighbour

Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India earlier this month, resulting in seven new agreements, showed the strength of the mutual relationship. But both governments need to address some rankling issues: the sharing of the Teesta waters, the Rohingya problem and repatriation of the illegal people from Assam

shutterstock_1506807533 Courtesy: Shutterstock
10 October 2019

Modi-Xi Take 2: a holding operation

The second informal summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in Mamallapuram on October 11 is likely to be more a holding operation than an occasion for increasing convergence of perspectives on regional and global issues. Neelam Deo, Director of Gateway House, answers a few questions on the eve of the Chinese president’s visit

IMG_51561_small Courtesy: Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University
3 October 2019

Post-Abqaiq Saudi Arabia

The immediate panic in the aftermath of the missile attack on Saudi Aramco’s facility at Abqaiq underlines the still-critical role of the Kingdom to the world economy. The subsequent recovery of oil production – with no disruption – showed that Saudi Arabia is a reliable partner/guarantor of energy supplies. Our Energy and Environment fellow Amit Bhandari was in Riyadh recently for a conference, and describes a post-Abqaiq Saudi Arabia

48645255438_77e7265a4b_c Courtesy: TICAD7/Flickr
3 October 2019

TICAD 7’s agenda: engaging private enterprise

The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development was a departure from earlier editions of it. Japan, which is changing tack as a competitor to China in Africa, held back from publicising the number of heads of state present to prevent any comparisons with other such forums and made no further commitments on Overseas Development Assistance. The accent, instead, was on increasing Japanese private sector engagement

48779842862_42f801ff25_z Courtesy: MEA/flickr
26 September 2019

PM Modi in Houston: balance and bonhomie

The Indian prime minister’s visit to the United States had both spectacle and substance, with the Houston event earlier this week casting a spotlight on the Indian American community. But the U.S.-India bilateral relationship is much more than a single event and negotiations on several issues will go on, says Ambassador Neelam Deo, Director, Gateway House, in this podcast

shutterstock_1457421710 (1) Courtesy: Shutterstock
26 September 2019

Quad in the Indo-Pacific

The foreign ministers of the Quad countries meet for the first time in New York today even as the Indo-Pacific has turned into a keenly contested geopolitical arena. Some countries are offering to play a mediatory role while other triangular equations are also undergoing change. An analysis of some of the relationships at work here