Institute for Security & Development Policy

China’s Approach to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda: An Interview with YEONJU JUNG

In the current landscape of global politics, China’s rise and its foreign policy are frequent topics of discussion. Simultaneously, there’s a growing interest in studying gender and women’s issues within the Chinese context. Surprisingly, the intersections of these two areas have been largely overlooked. To explore this knowledge gap, Clara Stäbler and Tove Jalmerud, interns of the Asia Program and the Stockholm China Center at ISDP, sat down with Yeonju Jung, a PhD scholar researching this often overlooked juncture in international politics. They discuss various aspects of China’s approach to the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in the international arena. Read this interview here.

Macron’s India Visit Solidifies a Trusted Partnership

French President Emmanuel Macron was in India as a chief guest of the 75th Republic Day celebrations. How has this visit of Macron enhanced India-France ties? Gulshan Sachdeva writes that the French leader’s visit was a few months after Indian Prime Minister Narender Modi’s visit for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris in July and Macron’s attendance at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September last year. He argues that although the visit was largely ceremonial, it did produce a comprehensive joint statement, nine agreements and seven announcements. This included ‘a roadmap for defense-industrial partnership’ as well as agreements in the areas of ‘defense-space partnership’, setting-up of assembly line for H125 helicopters, urbanization, science and technology and health cooperation. Other initiatives included declaring 2026 as India-France Year of Innovation and setting up of a Solar Academy in Senegal under the jointly launched International Solar Alliance. These outcomes made Macron's visit to India special, strengthening India-France ties, writes Sachdeva.

NAVIGATING THE CHINA CONTEST: EU’S MARITIME ROAD TO 2030 AND MIDDLE POWERS

This policy paper looks at the EU’s evolving maritime policy frameworks – like the MSS, Strategic Compass, and the Indo-Pacific strategy – to understand their complementarities and impact on its presence in the Indo-Pacific domain. Through a review of such an integrated approach by the EU, which emphasizes regional maritime multilateralism alongside bilateral frameworks, the paper outlines key trends that the EU could forge with India and other Quad powers such as Australia, Japan, and the US, to dissuade or possibly pose a challenge to the Chinese maritime dominance in the region. In particular, this paper by Jagannath Panda highlights the strategic convergence between the EU and Quad powers through a Middle Power construct on the maritime spheres in the Indian Ocean.

The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Recommendations

This policy brief analyzes the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) initiative on submarine cables in the Indo-Pacific and offers a timely roadmap as to how best to protect them. It first locates the significance of submarine cables for global connectivity and security, and then contextualizes the perception of threats to cables from malicious state or state-supported actors at a time of rising global tensions. Because of the unique challenges posed by cable vulnerabilities, including sabotage and espionage, this brief co-authored by Brendon J. Cannon and Pooja Bhatt focuses on the impact of disruptions within the evolving geopolitical landscape as well as their recent securitization and provides actionable rather than aspirational policy recommendations for the Quad. These include leasing cable repair ships, prioritizing existing subsea cable arrangements and collaborating with local operators to meet specific regional needs, and for the Quad to focus on achievable, collective maritime security initiatives rather than the pursuit of complex technology sharing at this stage. In brief, this policy brief by Cannon and Bhatt contribute to the existing literature on the Quad’s effectiveness, structure, and deterrent value.

Sino-Russian Relations, From Where – To Where

How is the relationship between China and Russia evolving? In this Asia Paper, Mats Engman, Zack Nhan and Tove Jalmerud argue that looking ahead, for the next five to ten years a continuation of the current trajectory may be visible, which points in the direction of a comprehensive relationship centered on at least three shared perceptions of global geo-political developments. First, a joint perception of a heightened “threat” from the U.S. and Western democratic nations being more about liberal values than military power. Second, a shared perception that the democratic world is inevitably in decline and the “East is rising” and third, a perception that the policies pursued overall have been successful. All of this is underpinned by a strong alignment and perception related to the importance of culture and history. The growing asymmetry in the relation where China is the stronger “big brother” and Russia the weaker part may cause disharmony, but is unlikely to derail the relationship, which can be summarized as “no always in agreement, but never against”, argue Engman, Nhan and Jalmerud.

Building the India-Japan Partnership: Strategic Compulsions and Indo-Pacific Imperatives

Over the past two decades, Japan and India have witnessed a transformative shift in bilateral ties that has seeped into their already officially established “Special Strategic and Global Partnership.” However, even as this growth remains unprecedented, the need for deepening their three-tiered partnership—bilateral, regional, and global— on multilateral concerns such as traditional and non-traditional security, defense, trade and investment, energy, technological innovation, and economy has never been more urgent, nor the scope so immense. This joint publication by the Kajima Institute of International Peace (KIIP) and the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) reviews diverse aspects of the ever-growing India-Japan comprehensive partnership in four key areas—namely strategic essence; trade, investment, and economic security; energy and digital partnership; and Indo-Pacific connects—highlighting the opportunities and challenges, as well as providing implementable recommendations for going forward. Download this ISDP-KIIP joint publication to read here.

Latest Publications

NAVIGATING THE CHINA CONTEST: EU’S MARITIME ROAD TO 2030 AND MIDDLE POWERS

Jagannath P. Panda

Europe’s strategic presence in the Indo-Pacific has become a matter of great substance in current global politics. The emergence of China as a disruptive maritime power, especially with its hardening […]

The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Recommendations

Brendon J. Cannon and Pooja Bhatt

This policy brief analyzes the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) initiative on submarine cables in the Indo-Pacific and offers a timely roadmap as to how best to protect them. It first […]

Building the India-Japan Partnership: Strategic Compulsions and Indo-Pacific Imperatives

Jagannath P. Panda and Tatsuo Shikata

Over the past two decades, Japan and India have witnessed a transformative shift in bilateral ties that has seeped into their already officially established “Special Strategic and Global Partnership.” However, […]

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

Upcoming Events

7 Feb
South Korea, India, and the Emerging Quad Plus Calculus

Latest Blog Posts

January 30 2024 by Gulshan Sachdeva

January 30 2024 by Gulshan Sachdeva
Macron’s India Visit Solidifies a Trusted Partnership

French President Emmanuel Macron was in India as a chief guest of the 75th Republic Day celebrations. India celebrates this day to mark the nation’s transition to a republic in 1950 when the Constitution of Independent India was adopted. A French leader being invited as the Guest of Honor for the Indian Republic Day marks […]
January 18 2024 by Jeffrey J. Hall

January 18 2024 by Jeffrey J. Hall
Japan Minus U.S. Protection: Godzilla and Japanese Fears of American Abandonment

On November 3, 2023, the latest film in the Godzilla franchise, Godzilla Minus One, was released in movie theaters across Japan. A resounding success in Japan, the film has also exceeded expectations in America, where it has set box office records for the U.S. release of a live-action Japanese film. Storytelling on Screen A […]
January 11 2024 by Jagannath P. Panda

January 11 2024 by Jagannath P. Panda
Game On: Framing India-China Relationship Trajectory in 2024?

How are India-China relations poised for 2024? For India and China, passive-aggressive tensions, primarily due to India’s projected global rise and current security-focused bonhomie with the U.S., have certainly shaped the year gone by, as evidenced by Chinese President Xi Jinping ignoring the G20 summit held in India or India intensifying its crackdown on Chinese […]

Most Popular

January 11 2024 by Jagannath P. Panda

January 11 2024 by Jagannath P. Panda
Game On: Framing India-China Relationship Trajectory in 2024?

How are India-China relations poised for 2024? For India and China, passive-aggressive tensions, primarily due to India’s projected global rise and current security-focused bonhomie with the U.S., have certainly shaped the year gone by, as evidenced by Chinese President Xi Jinping ignoring the G20 summit held in India or India intensifying its crackdown on Chinese […]
Building the India-Japan Partnership: Strategic Compulsions and Indo-Pacific Imperatives

Jagannath P. Panda and Tatsuo Shikata

Over the past two decades, Japan and India have witnessed a transformative shift in bilateral ties that has seeped into their already officially established “Special Strategic and Global Partnership.” However, […]

Books & Monographs December, 2023
The CSDDD Effect: Assessing the Impact of the EU’s Impending Corporate Sustainability Mandate on Japanese Companies

Sam Baron, Lavanga Wijekoon and Aki Tanaka

This issue brief explores the significant impact of the European Union (EU)’s expected Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) on global corporate responsibility, with a specific focus on its implications […]

Issue & Policy Briefs December, 2023

China’s Approach to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda: An Interview with YEONJU JUNG

Macron’s India Visit Solidifies a Trusted Partnership

NAVIGATING THE CHINA CONTEST: EU’S MARITIME ROAD TO 2030 AND MIDDLE POWERS

The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Recommendations

Sino-Russian Relations, From Where – To Where

Building the India-Japan Partnership: Strategic Compulsions and Indo-Pacific Imperatives

Latest Publications

NAVIGATING THE CHINA CONTEST: EU’S MARITIME ROAD TO 2030 AND MIDDLE POWERS

The Quad and Submarine Cable Protection in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Recommendations

Building the India-Japan Partnership: Strategic Compulsions and Indo-Pacific Imperatives

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