Institute for Security & Development Policy

The Chinese Balancing Act in Israel-Hamas Conflict

What is China's stance on the Israel-Hamas Conflict? Upamanyu Basu writes on the balancing Chinese act over the conflict which is turning out to be a major war. He argues that considering Beijing’s newly found brokering potential in Middle East and the attempt of being perceived as a peacemaker in the region, its balancing act with Israel and Palestine seems more complicated than usual. While China’s recently developed brokering capability remains questionable with respect to Israel, as compared to its experience with Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is important to argue that China does not necessarily want to replace the U.S. in the Middle East, but would enjoy the U.S. getting involved into a conflict in the region. The emergence of conflicting issues in the Indo-Pacific region poses a threat to the United States’ role as a global stabilizing force, potentially allowing China to capitalize on the situation and achieve strategic dominance in this crucial geopolitical hotspot, writes Basu.

Abandoning Neutrality, Absorbing Multipolarity: India and Sweden by 2047

Jagannath Panda writes on the future of India-Sweden relations by 2047. He argues that China’s continuing downward trajectory – in terms of both European perceptions of China as a corrosive influence on the rules-based world order and doubts about its potential as a responsible major power – has been hardening Sweden’s outlook on China for some time. India’s foreign policy has become more assertive with regard to China, with a greater focus on not allowing China to push forward with its anti-West agenda. This is especially true in the non-Western world, where China’s influence is increasing through China-dominated forums such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS, both of which are experiencing a new wave of expansion. India has positioned itself as the leader of the Global South during its pivotal year as G20 president as part of this agenda. Panda persuasively argues that such concerns have injected a more regional and trans-global dimension into the interactions between India and Sweden, and brought about a transformation in bilateral relations. Can India emerge as an alternative pole to China in the Swedish or broader European lens? How can India and Sweden mitigate the strategic gap in global concerns, not least their disparate stances on the Ukraine war? How does the future look for India’s ties with Sweden as a gateway for India-Nordic/India-EU ties in coming years or decades? Read this paper published with the UI by Jagannath Panda.

Taiwan’s growing engagement with Europe: ISDP hosted a delegation from the Prospect Foundation (PF) in Taiwan

The Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) hosted a five-member delegation from the Prospect Foundation (PF) in Taiwan for a short interaction in Stockholm. The Taiwan delegation was led by Dr. I-Chung Lai, the President of the PF. A range of topics were discussed, covering Taiwan’s growing engagement with Europe, Taiwan-Nordic, Taiwan-Indo-Pacific, Taiwan-India, and Taiwan-Sweden, among others. From the ISDP side, Dr. Jagannath Panda, Head of the SCSA-IPA, led the discussion. Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Mats Engman and other scholars from the ISDP joined the discussion.

Women’s Political Participation and Agency in Indonesia: An Interview with Raneeta Mutiara

In the context of the upcoming Indonesian presidential elections of February 2024, ISDP’s Asia Program intern Nolwenn Gueguen sat down with PhD scholar from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, Raneeta Mutiara, to shed light on women’s political participation in Indonesia. They first discussed the role of feminism in the Indonesian context before expanding on women’s political agency within Islamist organizations and its effects on the upcoming elections. Raneeta Mutiara argues that "Unfortunately, in Indonesia, there is resistance to change and adamancy to retain the patriarchy. The interesting part is that it does not only come from the male faction of society, but it also comes from women themselves."

India-Sweden Strategic Compass

Latest India-Sweden Strategic Compass is out! What to expect in this edition of the Newsletter? India-Sweden ties have continued to prosper this year as the two nations celebrated 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations with increased interactions and visits by high-level officials from both sides. The Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Sweden earlier this year set the ball rolling for elevated discussions, including in AI, digital transformation, climate action, accelerated investments, access to business opportunities, and Indo-Pacific affairs. India’s pivotal G20 presidency has been a huge factor; that this term coincided with Sweden’s six-month presidency of the EU Council was the icing on the cake. Going forward, Sweden and India collaborating on various global challenges, as well as fostering international cooperation, including with the Nordic, Baltic, and the EU member-states, for a rules-based Indo-Pacific order has provided a momentum to their individual efforts in this direction. Read this Newsletter for more details.

From Alipay to the Digital Yuan: China’s Fintech Revolution

This Asia Paper by Monique Taylor provides a broad and critical overview of the impact fintech is having on Chinese society and everyday life from the ubiquity of mobile payments and launch of red packets, through to super apps and social credit scoring; financial inclusion, especially in rural and under-served parts of China; the integration of fintech with e-commerce and social media; and the rollout of a digital yuan. Such an overview of the fintech ecosystem in China is lacking in the extant literature, with most papers focusing on specific fintech developments in isolation from each other. This paper also explores the opportunities and challenges for Chinese consumers in navigating an ever-expanding universe of innovative and, up until recently, poorly regulated, fintech products and services. Taylor strongly argues that the introduction of stringent fintech regulations provide greater consumer protection and, more importantly from the state’s perspective, reduce the risks posed by the fintech sector to financial stability.

Latest Publications

Abandoning Neutrality, Absorbing Multipolarity: India and Sweden by 2047

Jagannath P. Panda

Pragmatism and polarised positioning have become the new normal in foreign policy decision making – and Sweden and India are no exception. Sweden moved away from and perhaps permanently abandoned […]

Women’s Political Participation and Agency in Indonesia: An Interview with Raneeta Mutiara

Nolwenn Gueguen

In the context of the upcoming Indonesian presidential elections of February 2024, ISDP’s Asia Program intern Nolwenn Gueguen sat down with PhD scholar from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, […]

India-Sweden Strategic Compass, Vol. 2, No. 5

Jagannath P. Panda, Erika Rutonen and Filip Borges Månsson

India-Sweden ties have continued to prosper this year as the two states celebrated 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations with increased interactions and visits by high-level officials from […]

Books

Towards a Sustainable Arctic: International Security, Climate Change and Green Shipping

Michael Evan Goodsite and Niklas Swanström

The Arctic’s environment, economics, and politics are changing rapidly, and the conflicting interests among stakeholders mean that it lacks sustainable political and military cooperation. States bordering the Arctic — Russia, […]

Books & Monographs May, 2023
India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity: Emergence of a Possible Indo-Pacific Axis?

Jagannath P. Panda

This book focuses on the scope, potential and future of the India-Japan-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trilateral. Through this book, contributors examine the strategic and global partnership between India […]

Books & Monographs September, 2022
Diogenes Issue on Global Ethics

Torbjörn Lodén

“A Global Ethic has a fundamental role to play not only in defining basic values but also in reaching transcultural consensus about the meaning of key notions such as ‘well-being’ […]

Books & Monographs March, 2023, Vol. 64 Issue 1-2, February 2017.
Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific: The Changing Profile of International Relations

Jagannath P. Panda and Ernest Gunasekara-Rockwell

This book explores how the Quad Plus mechanism is set to reshape the global multilateral economic and security co-operations between Quad partner countries and the rest of the world. With […]

Books & Monographs June, 2022

News

Latest Blog Posts

December 1 2023 by Upamanyu Basu

December 1 2023 by Upamanyu Basu
The Chinese Balancing Act in Israel-Hamas Conflict

The Chinese stance on the October 7 Hamas attack reflects a diplomatic balancing act by Beijing. After getting the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), Zhang Jun reiterated the need to establish an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. Earlier, Russia and China had vetoed […]
November 16 2023 by Mark S. Cogan

November 16 2023 by Mark S. Cogan
Tourism Aside, Thailand Should Look to India for Broader Economic Cooperation

Thailand has yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism-dependent economy shaken by severe border restrictions saw arrivals slowing to a near standstill. When borders began to open in 2021, the Kingdom saw just over 106,000 foreign tourists, a drop from 6.7 million in 2020. At its apex, Thailand drew as many as […]
November 6 2023 by Satoru Nagao

November 6 2023 by Satoru Nagao
Hamas Attack: Impact on the Counter-China Strategy

The Islamic terrorist organization Hamas carried out a large-scale and brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. On the surface, this attack was not a response to the West’s counter-China strategy. But there is indeed a strong possibility that there was a connection. I will explain the connection below, identifying the impact on the […]

Most Popular

India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: Will It Get Subsumed by Its Grand Vision?

Jagannath P. Panda

The recently concluded Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in New Delhi under India’s presidency was, undoubtedly, a crowning moment for India. From providing the G20 with new relevance among the […]

Journal Article October, 2023, No. 53, October 2, 2023
China’s Decision-making and the Border Dispute with India

Jagannath P. Panda

What factors have prevented the PRC and India from moving past the stalemate over the LAC and reaching a sustainable solution to the border conflict? Looking at the PRC’s decision-making […]

Book Chapter October, 2023
27 Oct
Between Economic Security and Indo-Pacific Security: Prospects for Japan-India-EU Cooperation

The Chinese Balancing Act in Israel-Hamas Conflict

Abandoning Neutrality, Absorbing Multipolarity: India and Sweden by 2047

Taiwan’s growing engagement with Europe: ISDP hosted a delegation from the Prospect Foundation (PF) in Taiwan

Women’s Political Participation and Agency in Indonesia: An Interview with Raneeta Mutiara

India-Sweden Strategic Compass

From Alipay to the Digital Yuan: China’s Fintech Revolution

Latest Publications

Abandoning Neutrality, Absorbing Multipolarity: India and Sweden by 2047

Women’s Political Participation and Agency in Indonesia: An Interview with Raneeta Mutiara

India-Sweden Strategic Compass, Vol. 2, No. 5

Books

Towards a Sustainable Arctic: International Security, Climate Change and Green Shipping

India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity: Emergence of a Possible Indo-Pacific Axis?

Diogenes Issue on Global Ethics

Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific: The Changing Profile of International Relations