The end of the Cold War was one of the defining moments in Europe’s geopolitical history. The ‘frozen spatiality’ that dominated the geopolitical space of Europe for half a century came undone. The emergence of a new spatial reality brought with it a novelty of issues that had to be dealt with by strategic and political elites and their appendages (academia and media). Their interpretation of the end of the Cold War, and the choices they made, were critical in the evolution of a particular type of geopolitical thought and foreign policy discourse.

• Nachiket Khadkiwala |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article addresses the question of why regional cooperation among Afghanistan’s neighbours has been so difficult despite these countries’ common concerns. To answer this question, Afghanistan is conceptualised as placed at the core of overlapping regions: South Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and, through China’s influence, East Asia. Over the past decade, interactions among different regions ‘through’ Afghanistan have increased, and overlap has intensified.

• Sandra Destradi |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

In Does the Elephant Dance, David Malone identifies various aspects of Indian history relevant to foreign policy by examining the role of domestic politics and internal and external security challenges. The author specifically analyses domestic and international economic factors. In several chapters, he evaluates India’s policy towards its South Asian neighbours as well as explaining its multilateral diplomacy with respect to China, the US, West Asia, East Asia (India’s ‘Look East’ policy), Europe and Russia.

• Uma Nabhi |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article aims to delve into the patterns of convergence and divergence of interests among three key regional players in the Middle East: the Russian Federation, Turkey and Iran.

• Hossein Aghaie Joobani , Mostafa Mousavipour |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

With the take-over of power by the military on May 22, 2014, under General Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, the chief of army, Thailand has gone full circle in coup d’états, from democratic deficit to fractious political struggle between different social groups leading to acute and irreconcilable political instability that gives leverage to the army to finally intervene and seize power by suspending the constitutional processes. Democracy in Thailand is not only a recent phenomenon, but is also periodic and short-lived.

• Baladas Ghoshal |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington and a summit meeting with President Barack Obama re-energised a relationship that was widely perceived to be moving towards a dead end. During almost 10 years of Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, India’s relations with the United States held all the promises of becoming robust and a model strategic partnership for international relations.

• Chintamani Mahapatra |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

The long conflict between Israel and Palestine took a turn for the worse after the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014.

• G. Balachandran , Aakriti Sethi |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

Sir Creek, the 17th and last drainage branch of the river Indus, is a meandering riverine feature approximately 92 km (50 NM) long in the low-lying marshy region of Rann of Kutch. The Sir Creek boundary dispute between India and Pakistan is rooted in differing interpretations of the 1914 resolution passed by the Government of Bombay (GoB) or Bombay Residency.

• Raghavendra Mishra |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

Nepal shares an open border of 1,868 km with five Indian states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim) and 1,415 km with Tibet. Under the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India, Nepali citizens enjoy ‘national’ treatment and Nepali businesses unhindered rights of trade, transit and movement. An estimated six million Nepalese live and work in India and contribute to their inward remittances. Social intercourse along the Gangetic plane is described by people as ‘roti-beti ka sambandh’ (a relationship based on sharing of hearth and marriage).

• Arun Kumar Sahu |
• March 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

After nearly 30 years in power, the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt, considered by many to be the strongest in the Arab world, collapsed suddenly in February 2011 after a mere 18 days of street protests. In this article, we try to explain the puzzling collapse of the Mubarak regime using regime transition theory. We argue that the Mubarak regime’s collapse came about as a result of four key developments, none of which were sufficient to cause the regime’s collapse, but when coalesced together exposed the regime’s lack of coercive and persuasive powers, thereby hastening its demise.

• Kirsten Henderson , Rajat Ganguly |
• January 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis