ISDP Voices

Introduction Since taking office in 2025, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has positioned artificial intelligence (AI) as the cornerstone of the nation’s growth strategy, aiming to elevate the country into a top-three global AI powerhouse. This ambition is anchored by an unprecedented $880 billion investment package combining public funding with contributions from domestic tech […]

The Indo-Pacific does not end at Malacca. For India, it begins to fail at Hormuz and is secured—or lost—in the Eastern Mediterranean. That is not a metaphor. It is a map problem. For a generation, strategic maps have drawn the Indo-Pacific as an eastern theater of carriers, chokepoints, and semiconductor hubs, while West Asia has […]

New Delhi will host the BRICS Summit this week at a consequential moment for both the grouping and Indian foreign policy. BRICS is no longer the compact five-member forum that India helped build around the politics of emerging economies. Enlargement has given it a much broader geographic reach, greater demographic and economic weight, and an […]

Growing competition in outer space provides India with a unique opportunity to shape a narrative in which collaboration, rather than confrontation, drives space exploration. Recognised as a trustworthy and cost-effective spacefaring nation, India is now well placed to translate its technological advances into enduring international partnerships that contribute to scientific progress, economic growth, and sustainable […]

When Argentina and Brazil signed cooperation agreements on green hydrogen certification with China at the China-CELAC Ministerial Forum in Beijing in May 2025, neither government had a domestic certification framework of its own. The gap between those two facts captures the problem this blogpost examines: the Southern Cone is building green hydrogen infrastructure under Chinese […]

Introduction With 2,383 documented cyber-attacks in 2025, the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) experienced a 26 percent increase from the previous year. A joint report by the ROK Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) highlighted increased attacks on essential daily sectors—such as telecommunications, logistics, and finance—alongside supply-chain […]

As globalization fragments into competing blocs, interdependence is no longer a neutral feature of the world economy. It has become a source of geopolitical competition. The latest rounds of U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors, Europe’s “de-risking” agenda, and growing tensions over clean-energy supply chains all point to the same reality: the networks that once […]

The numbers from Tashkent’s first international equity listing tell a striking story. Uzbekistan’s government raised US$604 million through the London Stock Exchange debut of its National Investment Fund (UzNIF) on May 13, 2026, making it London’s first major IPO of the year. Demand exceeded supply by a factor of four. Cornerstone investors, including asset managers […]

Introduction Modern security challenges have shown how even in the absence of armed conflict, countries can face significant instability. Among the most pressing of these challenges are demographic decline and aging populations. These trends pose not only economic challenges but, for countries like the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea), also create national security […]

Introduction Japanese-Iranian diplomacy dates back to 1880, when Tokyo’s first official delegation visited Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. Japan shifted from “quiet diplomacy” to direct Gulf engagement during the 1970s Oil Crisis, later sending special representatives to Iran after the 1979 revolution. Today, Japan’s strategic interests in Iran and the Middle East are multifaceted. Crucially, Japan […]