Strategic Analysis

In the ascription of causality in international relations (IR), there is either deliberate action or historical contingency. Historical contingency is an element that cannot be accounted for; however, deliberate action is accounted for and ascribed to planning or strategy. Even with strategically planned deliberate action, there is an element of uncertainty of whether the intended effect will be achieved or not. This is due to intended effects of strategy being mediated by situational variables and contingencies. These characteristics form the underlying implicit nature of strategy.

• Abhishank Mishra
• January 2020 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Kautilya’s Arthashastra, after its rediscovery in 1905, became an important reference point for the nationalist discourse in India. The treatise, with its foundational roots in the third-century BCE, helped the nationalists discover self-esteem and confidence. It was instrumental in breaking the mental barriers forged by the colonialist discourse that instilled an intellectual and political inferiority among Indians. Arthashastra, though set in different time and socio-political context, became a proof of India’s glorious but forgotten tradition of political and economic thought.

• Deepshikha Shahi
• January 2020 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Over the past year i.e. 2018–2019, Pakistan has been facing challenging macro-economic conditions that include a ballooning fiscal imbalance and a weak external position with gross reserves at $8 billion, equal to 1.7 months of imports. On June 19, 2019, Reza Baqir, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan wrote to the Managing Director of the IMF, seeking assistance under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), on grounds that Pakistan’s international reserves had touched critically low levels with a large balance of payments gap, in an environment of limited market access.

• V. Srinivas
• January 2020 |
• Strategic Analysis
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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.

• Sachin Chaturvedi , Sabyasachi Saha
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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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.

• Anastasia Likhacheva
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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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.

• Igor Kovalev , Alina Shcherbakova
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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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.

• Ninel Seniuk
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The BRICS group has gone a long way from being the simple acronym to becoming global political player. While it remains undecided whether the BRICS will evolve into a comprehensive, consolidated alliance in global politics, the trend towards increased collaboration and institutionalization now indicates that this may well be feasible. The article examines the relationship between the European Union and BRICS and seeks to understand whether the EU and BRICS are more likely partners or rivals.

• Elena Maslova , Mark Entin
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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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.

• Li Li
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The article explores America’s evolving policy towards BRICS in the context of the Trump administration’s new ‘America First’ global strategy. Even though the BRICS grouping has not become an anti-systemic or anti-liberal force, its attempts to form an alternative centre of global power has prompted the US to manage multipolarity. The Trump administration has continued America’s previous policies of hedging potential BRICS consolidation and enhancing its regional engagement in the era of sovereignty revivalism and deglobalisation.

• Vitaly Kozyrev
• November 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis
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