Europe and Eurasia

About Centre

IDSA’s Europe and Eurasia Centre conducts its research both topically and regionally, focusing on the key strategic importance of Europe and the Eurasian region – covering Russia and the former Soviet Republics – to India’s security and foreign policy. While the European continent itself is no longer a major source of threats to India, European involvement and outreach on the global and regional arenas demand active attention to the security and defence policies of European countries and the efforts of major multilateral institutions such as NATO and EU. The Centre continues to host visiting European policy makers, academics, military personnel, diplomats and political leaders for conferences, seminars, lectures, workshops, and informal briefings.

In addition, the Centre focuses on the security and foreign policies of Russia as well as of the post-Soviet republics. India continues to depend on Russian defence supplies and benefits from Russian cooperation in the fields of hydrocarbon and nuclear energy. In the past, India and the erstwhile Soviet Union had invested heavily in a strategic relationship. That continues to be an important goal in official pronouncements. Russia is still politically, diplomatically and militarily important for India.

The Centre has published several books, reports, articles and policy papers on a wide variety of issues in the region. It has been conducting a series of security dialogues with the countries of the region at the bilateral and multilateral levels. The Centre also focuses on security and strategic issues in Central Asia that impact on India. Attention is also directed towards the energy security and economic linkages between India and Central Asian States.

Members:

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Smruti S. Pattanaik Research Fellow (SS)
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Rajorshi Roy Associate Fellow
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Jason Wahlang Research Analyst

No posts of Books and Monograph.

Role of BRICS’ Economic Cooperation for Global Governance and Institution-Building: An Indian Perspective

This article attempts to understand BRICS from the perspective of a multi-polar world order and the role played by India at the BRICS. Specifically, the article looks at the implication that BRICS has for future of multilateralism, promoting new institutional delivery mechanisms, upholding the space for development and equity, and highlights India’s contribution to the shaping of the BRICS agenda.

Water Challenge and the Prospects for BRICS Cooperation

Brazil and Russia rank first and second globally by the amount of renewable freshwater resources. Despite the significant challenges to municipal water use and water quality for the population, even in the timespan of 30 years these countries will be most protected from water stress. At the same time, China and India - countries with vast water resources, meet growing water challenges being the first and second in terms of world population and the world’s first and third economy according to PPP with prospects for further growth.

BRICS Cooperation in Science and Education

This article examines the preconditions and reasons for interaction between BRICS countries in the fields of science, research and university education. It analyzes the particular ways in which the member countries develop and coordinate their positions in these areas. It also reviews and evaluates the practical experience gained from cooperating on scientific and technological research and innovation (STRI), and the functioning of the BRICS Network University, and considers the prospects for further joint work in these areas.

BRICS Countries in Global Value Chains

The picture of the post-crisis world is shaped by the paradigm shifts about the sustainability of national development as a globally integrated co-development and as a necessary condition for national security and defence. Each state faces the steep task of developing new effective foreign economic policy, replacing the former export-oriented and protectionist import-substituting strategies. Such policy changes primarily concern the BRICS countries, including Russia and its place/role in expanding international trade in intermediate goods and services.

BRICS: A Limited Role in Transforming the World

The emergence of BRICS is a reflection of the economic power shift from the north to the south. BRICS cooperation is driven by their shared identity as emerging economies. BRICS will play a bigger role in reshaping the world economic order through reform of the existing international institutions and within the framework of G20. It is in no way aimed at toppling the existing world order or forming an anti-West bloc.

Shifting Strategic Focus of BRICS and Great Power Competition

This article builds on extensive debates on the role of BRICS in world order. But instead of focusing on BRICS’ impact on the world order, the article takes a different methodological approach. It traces how much the evolution of BRICS’ rational was prompted by changes of the international system and Russia’s and China’s grand strategies. The key finding is that the BRICS does not determine major world developments, but acclimatizes to the evolving international situation.

The BRICS in the Era of Renewed Great Power Competition

The BRICS are at a turbulent crossroads as renewed great power competition intersects with countervailing tendencies in the emerging multipolar arena. Their success depends avoiding the external costs and domestic pathologies generated by great power friction. Emerging multipolarity provides opportunities for manoeuvre, but only if outsized China accommodates the other BRICS as it competes against the United States. The BRICS’ strongest common aversion concerns American hegemony and its weaponization of finance.

BRICS and Sovereign Internationalism

The article outlines four types of globalism contending for hegemony today. The struggle of what effectively represents different types of international order is one reason why international politics today looks so disordered. The BRICS association is firmly located as part of one of these orders, that of sovereign internationalism, but is challenged by the disruptive implications of the Trumpian mercantilist order. BRICS and its members as a result are drawing closer to the liberal internationalist model.

Theorizing EU-TRACECA Relationship in Eurasian Context

This article contends that the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) is European Union’s (EU) most visionary trans-regional connectivity project. It theorizes the EU-TRACECA relationship to show that the TRACECA represents different regional integration concepts, and that the EU scripted it invariably for the mutual benefits of its partner states. Conceptually optimistic, the article, nonetheless, discovers certain inextricable complications in the TRACECA’s real working for varying economic profiles of and mutual conflicts among its member countries.

The Geopolitics of the US-India-Russia Strategic Triangle

The article deals with the state of play in the relationships between the United States, India and Russia. The focus of the article is placed on the geopolitical environment in which the three countries have been building their relationships in contemporary times. The author analyses the approaches of the US, India and Russia towards two geographical concepts of the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia. The situation in Afghanistan is examined through perspectives and interests of all three players as each of them is involved—though in a different manner—in the resolution of the crisis.