ISDP Voices

A new momentum seems to be visible in South Korea-Japan relations since the Yoon administration assumed office in Seoul last year. President Yoon Seok-youl had stated his intention to re-establish cooperation with Tokyo during his presidential campaign itself, and the controversy regarding compensation to Korean workers forced to do hard labor in Japanese factories and […]

During their 4th Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) and 2nd Service-to-Service (STS) Meeting recently, the Philippines and India stated their mutual commitment to strengthening the capacity of their defense partnership. It was also reported that Manila and New Delhi are in talks for the potential deployment of an Indian defense attaché to the Southeast Asian […]

India recently announced it would send a consignment of 20,000 metric tons of wheat to the Taliban-led Afghanistan through Chabahar port in Iran. This wheat is part of India’s humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. India, a friendly country to Afghanistan, has been sending wheat consignments to the […]

Key Takeaways Sweden should voice support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the upcoming WHA. Statehood is not at the center of WHO/WHA membership; Taiwan was a WHA observer for eight years as Chinese Taipei. Taiwan’s participation in the WHA is a global health issue. Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHA can improve Cross-Strait relations. Taiwan has made […]

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking diplomat and member of the Politburo, stated that China should not be perceived as a rival but rather as a partner of Europe. The EU, however, designated China a “systemic rival” in 2019. In January this year, Sweden assumed the presidency of the European […]

Eurasia is undergoing a geopolitical Zeitenwende. The Russia–Ukraine war has transformed the continent’s security perspective, bringing its opposite ends together into a strategic tandem. At the same time as longstanding neutral countries Finland and Sweden have decided to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the transatlantic alliance has extended its reach to the Indo-Pacific, […]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a watershed event in contemporary international politics to the extent that it has divided all international developments into prior and post the Ukrainian war. From the onset of the war itself, many analysts have been debating that the war would sooner or later bring about changes in […]

The Chinese government has been making diplomatic overtures to areas close to the polar regions as an integral part of its maritime strategy. Beijing’s outreach is not only steadily expanding in the Southern Hemisphere but it maintains a low profile by not questioning the Western order in the region, especially the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). […]

President Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka last month postponed the local government elections scheduled for March 9, 2023. “This is the height of absurdity,” explained senior parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran. Despite the executive decision to postpone, Sri Lanka’s top court ordered the government to proceed with the delayed local election, overruling President Wickremesinghe, who argued […]

The Indo-Pacific has rapidly become the global geopolitical and geo-economic epicenter, encompassing roughly two-thirds of the world’s population, global GDP, and international maritime trade, as well as some of the world’s most important strategic challenges. By Indo-Pacific, we generally refer to a macro-region stretching from East Africa to West America – thus decentralizing China’s strategic […]