In yet another policy flip-flop that has become emblematic of the Trump Administration, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has said that he received a directive from the President, Donald Trump, to reduce troops in Afghanistan before November 2020. That is the month and year in which the United States will go to its presidential […]
China is considered one of the most intractable challenges in geopolitics today. The remarkable success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in recent decades, in achieving high economic growth by fusing together market economics and authoritarian control, China’s several millennia-old civilization, and its socio-cultural complexities, both intimidate and confound those whose task it is to develop […]
The Indian invitation to leaders of the BIMSTEC grouping to attend the second swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a number of significant implications. For one, it is a sign that the current Indian establishment thinks that the SAARC framework continues to underperform and is simply not enough to facilitate India’s ambitions. For […]
It has now been over a decade since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 (26/11) undertaken by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tohiba (LeT) group. Since then, considerable efforts have been made to streamline India’s coastal security, including fostering functional synergy among the various agencies involved. However, recent reports indicate that the coastal security architecture is undergoing […]
Iran has threatened to close down the Strait of Hormuz. This is in response to the US decision to end waivers for eight major oil importing countries for buying oil from Iran, starting from 01 May 2019. Similar threats have emanated from Teheran in the past. However, the continuing US efforts to strangulate the Iranian […]