India's relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been primarily based on mutual trade and business. GCC countries are the main source of energy for India and a market for Indian commodities. India's five-million-strong workforce forms a natural linkage between India and the GCC. But despite such strong trade linkages, which are still growing, political and strategic relations between India and the GCC have been found lacking. Recent years have witnessed signing of defence and security agreements between India and some of the GCC countries.

• Prasanta Kumar Pradhan
• May 2010
• Strategic Analysis

AFRICOM is a new institution representing the new manner of US engagement. This is different from the EU model of engagement and comes at a time when India and China are seen as important partners of Africa. This paper is written to provide an insight into AFRICOM from an Indian perspective of Africa. This differs from the EU view and also from Africa's own response. US policy towards Africa consists of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) + AFRICOM; whereas AGOA is better understood, AFRICOM is not. This paper proposes to fill some of the gaps in its understanding.

• Gurjit Singh
• May 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Today, the situation in Afghanistan is mired with the geopolitics of regional and extra-regional players. Bringing stability to the country is a major challenge for the international community. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has the potential to play an important role, provided it is able to make some adjustments in its policy. Given its strengths and weaknesses, it is likely to focus more on economic, trade and security related issues within the Eurasian region rather than in Afghanistan.

• Meena Singh Roy
• July 2010
• Strategic Analysis

• Max Singer
• July 2010
• Strategic Analysis

As high-profile incidents of piracy become more common off Somalia, strategists have taken to urging the US government to send expeditionary forces ashore. The article uses history and Clausewitzian theory to estimate the nature of the threat and the likely efficacy of a land campaign. Even successful operations would entail costs exceeding the value of the political stakes. For this reason alone, going ashore is inadvisable.

• James R. Holmes
• September 2010
• Strategic Analysis

• Ruchita Beri
• January 2009
• Strategic Analysis

• Greg Mills
• January 2008
• Strategic Analysis

India has played a major role in keeping peace in Africa through its participation in the UN peacekeeping operations in the continent. For India, being at the forefront in peacekeeping in Africa is driven by a combination of factors, the aim to promote world peace and also safeguard its national interest. India's contributions are thus unique in the context of professionalism, humanitarian concern, and gender sensitivity.

• Ruchita Beri
• March 2008
• Strategic Analysis

The formation of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum signals a new phase in South-South cooperation. This paper argues that the IBSA represents the partnership of three like-minded democratic countries, predominant in their respective regions, with some common agenda for the future. The paper argues that the IBSA partnership is still in its formative years and the best is yet to come. There is a need for intense consultation and communication to fructify the goals of IBSA.

• Ruchita Beri
• September 2008
• Strategic Analysis

• P. R. Kumaraswamy
• November 2008
• Strategic Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities of the international system, particularly those of multilateral institutions. When the much spoken borderless threat became a reality, the multilateral institutions were found not only unprepared but acting in a self-destructive mode.

• Rajeesh Kumar
• May 21, 2020
• IDSA Comments

It is the need of the hour that India and the African countries collaborate to control the outbreak of the pandemic and to mitigate its long-term economic impact.

• Ruchita Beri
• April 29, 2020
• IDSA Comments

The India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave is a step towards engaging the African countries on peace and security. It is hoped that the conclave leads to a candid discussion on common security challenges and examines the ways and means to further enhance cooperation between India and the African countries.

• Ruchita Beri
• February 06, 2020
• IDSA Comments

COP25 was expected to give prominence to science, streamline ambitious targets and raise trust among parties. Even after a marathon two-week talks, issues such as creating an international carbon market and climate financing were pushed to the next year.

• Rajeesh Kumar
• January 15, 2020
• IDSA Comments

Human resource development (HRD) and capacity building are frequently claimed to be at the heart of India's development cooperation. This paper is one of the first to look inside these claims and to review critically the many different facets of India's capacity building. The focus is India's engagement with Africa, and the time-frame is from 1947 till the present. Many of the key HRD elements in India's cooperation are covered: from support to thousands of African students and professionals to learn from Indian institutions to the ambitious HRD pledges of the three India-Africa Forum Summits. India's soft power in Africa is examined along with its support to institutional and digital development.

• Kenneth King
• Occasional Papers

The recent spate of violence in South Africa appears to be rooted in the country’s failure to fully transform itself in the post-apartheid era. If the government fails to effectively address the issue of rising unemployment and widening socio-economic inequality in the country, the violence is likely to recur from time to time.

• Anand Kumar
• October 04, 2019
• IDSA Comments

China's Belt and Road Initiative helps African countries in reducing the infrastructure gap in the region. However, it also leaves them open to the risk of unsustainable debt.

• Ruchita Beri
• April 15, 2019
• IDSA Comments

The implications of a no-deal Brexit, particularly on EU-UK trade relations, security and the rights of the citizens, would be grave and irreparable.

• Rajeesh Kumar
• February 22, 2019
• Issue Brief

With John Bolton conceding that the US has limited resources to compete with the tens of billions of dollars that China is pouring into Africa, it is not clear how effective America’s new Africa strategy would prove to be in containing China.

• Anand Kumar
• January 09, 2019
• IDSA Comments

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration embodies the international community’s collective commitments to promoting cooperation on migration and solve the growing migrant crisis.

• Rajeesh Kumar
• January 02, 2019
• IDSA Comments