15maldives-master675 Courtesy: New York Times
15 February 2018

Maldives: the Quad’s first crisis

The crisis in the Maldives is a case study of Chinese investments undermining democratic institutions in smaller countries. It poses long term threats to India’s economic and political security. And almost overnight, it has turned the Indian Ocean into the Indo-Pacific

37019468915_3c74a9c724_o Courtesy: Government of South Africa/ Flickr
25 January 2018

South Africa leads BRICS, IORA in 2018

Internal political constraints dog it currently, but if overcome, South Africa can be a good chairman to BRICS and IORA in 2018. It also has a tough balancing act to perform between two great Asian powers, China and India

aa-Cover-aku7um6k6ta50ut215mv8qrrj6-20180107020128.Medi Courtesy: AP (Courtesy of The Asian Age)
7 January 2018

The unchanged U.S.-Pakistan dynamic

Logistical support for this mission, movement of heavy equipment, fuel and other supplies, needs connectivity via Pakistan.

2017-11 7389 Courtesy: Independent
1 January 2018

Trump’s NSS and Great Power competition

The camaraderie that Trump and Xi projected in November 2017 generated unease. At year end, Trump’s National Security Strategy did away with the multipolar niceties, but the challenges remain: for the U.S., it’s promoting rule of law while opting out of multilateral bodies. For China, it’s taking stock of how its image corresponds to reality