Africa, Latin America, Caribbean & UN

About Centre

The Centre’s research focus includes understanding developments in the African region and analysing various hotspots like Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and the Indian Ocean Region. It also focuses on bilateral, regional and multilateral engagements between India and the countries of Africa. The Centre also endeavours to analyse India’s engagement with Latin American countries, particularly in forums such as IBSA, BRICS, etc. In addition, the Centre carries out research on the broader theme of India and the United Nations. It deals with important topics that come up in the Security Council and those that hold relevance and significance for India’s foreign policy.

Click here for newsletters of the Center – Africa Trends

South Asian ‘Zombie’: The futility of reviving SAARC

Given the structural fragility of SAARC and its inability to promote South Asian regional integration, an attempt to reboot the organisation would be futile.

Rajeesh Kumar
May 01, 2018
Issue Brief

Crippling the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force

The Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force officer corps has a challenging task at hand to preserve the operational capability of the force as well as address the genuine concerns being expressed by their subordinates.

Will Great-Power Conflict Return?

Geopolitical competition between the great powers with or without direct conflict will lead to a situation where productive cooperation among them on critical international issues is likely to prove difficult.

Rajeesh Kumar
April 06, 2018
Issue Brief

South Africa Boosts Naval Capabilities: But can it afford an expansion?

The RSA may be forced to choose between significantly increasing the budgetary allocations for the SAN and adopting a rotational storage programme to preserve capability while reducing operational costs.

India’s Relations with the Latin America-Caribbean Region: Prospects and Constraints

This paper seeks, from a Latin American perspective, to examine India's relations with the Latin America-Caribbean region. It makes a distinction between the hesitant and somewhat apathetic approach of the Indian government towards enhanced ties with the region and the rather more proactive and enthusiastic approach by the Indian business sector which has seen Indian trade with the region growing many fold and increasing at the same rate as China's.

The Response of CARICOM Armed Forces to Hurricane Maria

The deficiencies in planning and training of personnel for disaster relief operations as well as the capability gaps in equipment that the response to Huricane Maria highlighted need to be plugged.

India’s ICJ Win: Triumph of Multilateral Realpolitik?

The re-election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the ICJ is an endorsement of the multilateral diplomacy based on realpolitik that India has been practicing in recent years.

Rajeesh Kumar
December 06, 2017
IDSA Comments

Venezuela’s Political Crisis: Continuing Chaos

While the willingness of the Maduro regime to silence the opposition is cause for concern, far more worrying is the prospect of the new Constituent Assembly rewriting the Constitution to eliminate the last vestiges of democratic checks and balances.

The Protracted Brazilian Crisis

In the backdrop of various corruption scandals marring the political scenario in Brazil, the 2018 general elections will probably be marked by uncertainties and contradictions of the competing coalition politics.