The central message at the Shangri-La Dialogue is that America is staying, but on new terms. It will remain the core military balancer in the Indo-Pacific, but it expects allies and partners to become serious contributors. The era of strategic free-riding is ending. The new Indo-Pacific order will increasingly be defined by those willing and able to share the burden of preserving it.
The CEPS conference shows Pakistan is shifting the Indus issue from technical water management to geopolitical norm contest. That’s the key transition. Once a river dispute enters Brussels policy networks, international arbitration, climate diplomacy, and security discourse it becomes much harder to keep it bilateral. And that is likely Pakistan’s main strategic objective.
The Islamabad Memorandum has bought time. But time is not neutral. It can be used to construct a more durable settlement, or by spoilers in Washington, Tehran and Tel Aviv to rebuild the case for war. The ceasefire will endure only if the difficult questions postponed in Islamabad are answered before those who opposed the truce succeed in answering them on the battlefield.
A big development happened in 2025. Nepal started exporting electricity to Bangladesh through India's transmission network. This was the first time Nepalese hydropower was commercially transmitted to Bangladesh via Indian territory. The initial export volume was 40 megawatts. The significance of the agreement is much bigger. It showed that regional energy cooperation can overcome political barriers.
Trump took a broader view of the Indo-Pacific region and its role that aligned with India’s in a world where China assumes an increasingly aggressive posture towards neighbours and vies for global dominance. In his tenure, he extended the Pacific remit to the Indian Ocean, embracing India in the strategy for the region.
While the real issue of Ram temple is social, it is also a political play at its zenith. In a politically charged nation, what we see are distorted views of the developments in Ayodhya.
The adverse influence of uncontrolled social media in the relations between India and Maldives is a case in point. Social media poses an existential threat to the conventional methods of conducting governance, diplomacy, and warfare.
Al-Qaeda's strategic plan involves aiding "persecuted" Kashmiri Muslims once their objectives in Pakistan are achieved. Shifting the jihadist threat toward Kashmir will also align with the ambitions of the Pakistani military.
In India's close-knit communities, mental health struggles often face a deafening silence. According to a study by Deloitte, over 70 per cent of Indians use derogatory terms for mental disorders and nearly 40 per cent voice fear of a neighbour seeking help for mental health issues.
The recent passage of amended criminal laws in India highlights the challenges of human judges' adaptability, contrasting with the instantaneous application capabilities of robo-judges. COVID-19 accelerated technology integration in Indian courts, paving the way for the use of AI in judicial administration.
With the spectacular achievements of the Indian Navy in the 1971 war under the daring and decisive leadership of Admiral Nanda, he could well have been considered for being made Admiral of the Fleet. As this involves rectifying past oversights, there are already precedents.
The absence of a strong opposition can potentially pave the way for the ascendancy of authoritarian, dictatorial, or undemocratic forces within the country's political sphere.
Both DPI and AI are data-driven and integral to future human development. In 2024, India and the EU are looking to formulate a unified approach towards these two cutting-edge aspects of technology.
The large number of independent candidates winning in this election has shown new thinking in Bangladesh's politics. And the time may have come for political parties to rethink their candidate selection process.
The judiciary, media, human rights activists and Baloch nationalist parties have almost exhausted their efforts in trying to persuade international institutions to intervene and end the sustained atrocities against the people of Balochistan.
India’s mainland is endowed with a long coastline of over 5500 km. All the areas situated near this coastline can get clean drinking water through dew condensation.
State-sponsored terrorism is often employed by smaller or weaker states to weaken bigger or stronger nations as it is more cost effective than traditional war. One of the most prominent examples of this could be the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan
The drone attacks in the Arabian Sea recently are an indication of the high-tech means available to the non-state actors and it won’t take much time for them to acquire deadly underwater drones with explosives to carry out unimaginable attacks in a politically volatile IOR
The South Asian region has much to learn from the ASEAN experience in integrating investment, trade and movement of labour which includes a skilled workforce
