ISDP Voices

As the great power rivalry of the 21st century is engulfing the South Pacific, French President Emmanuel Macron visited the region from July 24-29, 2023. His visit covered three important destinations – New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea – that carry a symbolic salience along with strategic significance for France, a resident power in […]

Predictions of a foreign policy reset following the upset of Thailand’s long-dominant conservative establishment in the May 2023 election have proved to be premature. The junta-appointed Senate, permitted by the Kingdom’s 2017 Constitution, has stonewalled Pita Limjaroenrat, the Move Forward Party’s candidate for Prime Minister. Pita, a businessman, and leading progressive reformer, had suggested a […]

The U.S. has been warning that a crisis on Taiwan is nearby. In 2021, the then-Chief of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Philip Davidson, said that China may try to attack Taiwan by 2027. And in 2022, the Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director, David Cohen, stated that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants the People’s Liberation […]

Bangladesh recently announced its Indo-Pacific outlook with a firm commitment to the vision of a free, open, peaceful, secure and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. This outlook, according to the foreign minister of Bangladesh, emphasizes three P’s: peace, partnership and prosperity. Bangladesh has four guiding principles behind this outlook: Bangabandhu’s foreign policy ‘friendship to all, malice to […]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States ended with much fanfare and optics. However, the visit was high on substance and deliverables as well. More than any other sector, the emerging landscape of technology became a fulcrum of the growing bonhomie between the two countries. Just a cursory examination of the detailed […]

Since its inception in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been a cornerstone of worldwide security. Its progression, characterized by flexibility and durability, has been primarily shaped by the ever-changing geopolitical landscape and the strategic goals of its most influential member, the United States. The development of NATO can be largely divided into […]

The month of May saw India’s participation in the inaugural ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise (AIME 2023) that was held on May 2-8, 2023 in the South China Sea waters. Two indigenous-built ships, INS Satpura and INS Delhi, from the Eastern Naval Command participated in the two-phased exercises. The harbor phase was held in Changi Naval Base, […]

When India and China embraced each other as brothers in the early 1950s – a truly historic achievement, no one applauded Jawaharlal Nehru and Mao Zedong/Zhou Enlai as smart leaders. But the Nixon-Kissinger and Mao/Zhou duo were hailed for their epoch-changing handshake in the early 1970s; likewise, Mikhail Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping ended the Chinese-Soviet […]

The India-U.S. bilateral relationship stands at a juncture, hitherto unseen, in terms of compatibility of interest and implementation. A broad positive arc guides the trajectory of the relationship amidst the shifting balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and the world at large. The upcoming state visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United […]

During the Second World War, when the U.S. planned the bombardment of Japan, it sought the help of a Chinese architect from Tsinghua University, as to which were the areas that should be protected and spared destruction. The architect was none other than Liang Sicheng, ‘the father of modern Chinese architecture’ and the son of […]