Subhash Bhambhu

After prolonged negotiations, 94 non-nuclear weapon States signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 without the participation of any nuclear weapons States. In February 2023, Russia suspended its participation in New START, the nuclear arms reduction treaty signed in 2010, citing the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The doomsday clock is ticking alarmingly, 89 seconds away from midnight mayhem. How does one make sense of a world where humanity has chosen to co-exist with nuclear weapons? Emerging from the Shadows: Essays on Disarmament by Indian Women is a series of essays discussing the art of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and its journey, fused with India’s engagement with the issue. The diverse topics it addresses range from the interlinkage of non-proliferation, disarmament and foreign policy, confidence building measures, verification processes, nuclear risk reduction, nuclear energy market and its trends, biosecurity and the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. It is an analytically crafted account and a review of contemporary discourse around disarmament entwined with non-proliferation. The authors place great emphasis on the interconnected nature of the disarmament and non-proliferation approaches, where the latter draws credibility from, and lays groundwork for, the former.

• Subhash Bhambhu |
• July-August 2025 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Economic Weapon came at a time when Western policymakers were struggling to sanction one of the world’s largest economies, Russia, over the war in Ukraine. Nicholas Mulder, an Assistant Professor of modern European history at Cornell University, traces the evolution of the ‘economic weapon’ or what is now referred to as ‘economic sanction’, since its origin in 1914 until the foundation of the UN. In Prof. Mulder’s view, the role of the economic weapon was not given its proper space in World War history. Through the historical account, the author explores how the emergence of the economic weapon during wartime and especially during peacetime played a role in shaping the currents of various events.

• Subhash Bhambhu |
• January-February 2025 |
• Strategic Analysis