In Conversation with Rajesh Mehta: Ambassador Ajay Bisaria
A seasoned diplomat with decades of experience across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific, Ambassador Ajay Bisaria has been at the forefront of some of India’s most consequential diplomatic engagements. His insights reflect both strategic realism and a deep understanding of India’s long-term interests in a turbulent global order. He was the High Commissioner […]
Dictator Next Door
Asim Munir’s power grab in Pakistan makes South Asia a more dangerous neighbourhood. The Pak military is no longer a state within a state. It is the state Yesterday’s attack on the Peshawar headquarters of Pakistan’s Federal Constabulary that killed three security personnel exemplifies the chaos engulfing that country. But the Pakistani leadership appears keen […]
Shifting Sands in South Asia: Sifting Mirages from Reality
NAVIN BERRY: The situation in South Asia is changing fast. Too many developments, too fast. For starters, there is Field Marshal Munir, who suddenly has erupted on the scene. Is he the new go-between President Xi and President Trump, because he keeps shifting from one capital to the other? What kind of play is happening […]
Weathering the Trumpstorm: Navigating Tariffs in Indo-US Trade Relations
The road to peace in Europe—and fixing Indo-US relations—may pass through the icy corridors of Alaska If there is one tool that Donald Trump wields with as much relish as tariffs, it is sanctions. These are the blunt instruments of choice for America’s chief peacemaker and dealmaker, used both to halt wars and to remake […]
Sprinkle Trade On Baked Alaska?
Trump-Putin’s summit could be a turning point for Ukraine and global commerce. If talks succeed, sanctions could be adjusted & India might face fewer tariff troubles. If talks fail, except a tougher Trump If there is one tool Donald Trump wields with as much relish as tariffs, it is sanctions. These are the blunt instruments […]
Sindoor’s New Red Lines Are Drawn
When LeT terrorists struck in Kashmir on 22 April, Pakistan had effectively jumped on the first rung of a familiar conflict escalation ladder. It did so with implausible deniability of its role. But this time was different. The two countries climbed perilously higher into conflict than they had done ever before in this century. Between […]
India’s Post-Conflict Diplomacy: Reclaiming the Global Narrative on Terrorism
The Pahalgam terrorist attack of April 2025 triggered the articulation of a new security doctrine by India—a ‘new normal’ for countering cross-border terrorism at its source, defining a revised national security and foreign policy vision. India’s robust military response—Operation Sindoor—was calibrated deterrence, designed to send a clear message of resolve, primarily to Pakistan but also […]
Modi In G7: Resets In The Rockies
The G7 Summit in Kananaskis, deep in the Canadian Rockies, unfolded this week amid global tumult – from an escalating Iran-Israel conflict to intensified Russian missile strikes on Kyiv, to tariff wars. Yet beneath the crisis headlines, the summit also saw critical course corrections in some rocky bilateral relationships. Among other disturbed dyads, India and […]
Will India’s ‘Integrated Deterrence’ Stem Cross-Border Terror?
As more information about the battleground realities trickles in, security analysts are busy finding templates to explain India’s calibrated counter-terror action launched in response to the brutal cross-border terrorist attack in April 2025. Operation Sindoor has already reignited debates on the theory of deterrence. Did the deterrence of 2019 fade? Does deterrence really work? Can […]
Munir’s Dangerous Doctrine
Ultimately, the Munir Doctrine is a dead end. It substitutes belligerence for strategic thinking. It indulges the military’s worst instincts. In trying to cast himself as heir to Jinnah and Zia, Munir is embalming a vision of Pakistan that no longer serves its people—and driving it toward becoming a reckless, war-making garrison state.