Climate change has acquired high priority in the United Kingdom's foreign policy. It has in recent years raised the issue of climate change at various international forums, such as G-8, the European Union and the UN Security Council. This article examines how and why climate change has become one of the core components of UK foreign policy, and in so doing analyses the interconnections between foreign policy and climate change, and interactions between domestic and international politics.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha
• May 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Like in the 1950s, the word ‘riparian’ is back again in the India–Pakistan lexicon, becoming this time intensely political, emotional and divisive. This development is both instructive and unsettling. It is instructive to note how the current water realties of the two countries, which have changed significantly since the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in 1960, will now determine the treaty's future. With growing populations, inadequate water management techniques and the impact of global warming, water resources are under pressure.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha
• July 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Both the Chinese government and the Tibetans are in agreement over the impending issues relating to the adverse impact of climate change on Tibet while the India-specific data on glacier melt is as yet inconclusive. There is, however, a difference of perception in Sino-Tibetan discourse over the capitalist model of economic development being undertaken by China which is at variance with the cultural practices of Tibetans, informed and regulated as they are with the Buddhist values of oneness with nature. Nomadism is also fundamental to the preservation of the ecology of Tibet.

• P. K. Gautam
• September 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Rivers are more than what Samuel T. Coleridge poetically expressed in Kubla Khan: ‘meandering with mazy motion’ and falling into the ‘sunless sea’. Rivers are life-givers, carrying a mystic and sacred quality about them. That they are oft described as being ‘mighty’—the mighty Amazon; the mighty Nile; the mighty Brahamaputra; the mighty Murray; the mighty Mississippi and Missouri—is hardly mystifying. Civilizations have grown around it and flourished. In contemporary politics the salience of rivers cannot be overlooked both in terms of being drivers of cooperation and conflict.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha
• September 2010
• Strategic Analysis

The latest addition to the Chinese ‘enigma’ is its oil potential. There have been various accounts, of late, in influential journals and important documents attempting to unravel the mystery surrounding Chinese oil. As it happens, most of them have helped only to further deepen it.

• P. K. S. Namboodiri
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Development prospects and economic growth in Pakistan, like in most other countries, will hinge on securing sustainable energy supplies. The Pakistan government has developed a strategy to enhance its energy production by 2030. This article explores the problems faced by the Pakistan government in optimising its use of indigenous energy resources and the implications that future plans to strengthen its energy security may have for its domestic and foreign policy.

• Sumita Kumar
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

The energy sector since the mid-2000s has acquired top priority in Russian state affairs, but since late 2008 it has also become the epicentre of the economic disaster that still continues to affect Russia. President Medvedev has effectively discarded the notion of Russia as an 'energy super-power' and is now focusing on 'modernisation' for Russia's development. But coherence of this course is problematic because the bulk of new investments must go into the energy sector in order to sustain the high revenues.

• Pavel K. Baev
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Following the recent economic crisis, concerns over the revival of trade protectionism have surfaced, with some countries imposing or threatening to impose highly trade-distorting legislation to help their domestic industries compete in world markets, raising the spectre of a potential trade war. This paper looks at the attempts by some of the developed countries to introduce trade measures using the issue of climate change as a Trojan horse, to ensure that they do not lose out to the emerging economies.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

With the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, time seems to be running out for a new successor agreement. The Protocol remains the most comprehensive attempt to negotiate binding limits on anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The long-term challenge, defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is to stabilise GHG concentration in the atmosphere at levels that would prevent interference with the climate system. There are, however, economic and social realities that drive anthropogenic GHG emissions.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

Most of the countries in West Asia have expressed an interest in developing nuclear energy. For them their growing demand of electricity owing to the increasing population, growing industries, their eternal reliance on the desalinated water and environmental protection are the major drivers of their decision to produce nuclear energy. Importantly, they would like to use nuclear energy for domestic consumption and supply oil and gas to earn more revenues.

• Prasanta Kumar Pradhan
• November 2010
• Strategic Analysis

The value of the Caspian energy reserve lies in its potential to add to global reserves of oil and gas, which, in turn, could bring down costs.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal , Chithra Purushothaman
• September 12, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Given that Iran accounts for around 10 per cent of India total oil imports, the immediate factor for New Delhi will be to look at various options to deal with the situation without jeopardising its energy security.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• July 12, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Despite the easing of international crude prices, the central government is unlikely to cut central excise duties since a cut of Re 1 would result in a loss of revenue of Rs. 10,725 crore.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• May 30, 2018
• IDSA Comments

China’s launch of a yuan-denominated oil futures exchange will provide it with the opportunity to create an Asian crude oil benchmark and give it more clout in crude pricing and for promoting the yuan as a truly global currency.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• February 22, 2018
• IDSA Comments

India should invest in creating a competitive solar module sector across the manufacturing chain, from procuring primary resources to the finished product.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• November 22, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Crown Prince Salman has been using oil as a tool to further his political ambitions both domestically and internationally, and Saudi Aramco acts as a nucleus around which his ambitions revolve.

• Chithra Purushothaman
• November 16, 2017
• IDSA Comments

The contentious discourse in the media ignores the implications of state taxes on rising fuel prices.

• Vinay Kaushal
• September 27, 2017
• Issue Brief

If India gets a stake in the proposed Aramco IPO, it would mean getting a share of profits from one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies.

• Chithra Purushothaman
• July 13, 2017
• IDSA Comments

India’s record in wind energy development is good. But the existing technology is fast becoming outdated. Evolving technologies like kite wind should therefore be considered.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• June 09, 2017
• IDSA Comments

While hydropower projects are critical for economic growth and development, it is equally important to fully assess their potential social and environmental impact in the long-term. The challenge lies in finding the right balance between the need for development and the necessity of protecting the environment.

• Opangmeren Jamir
• May 12, 2017
• IDSA Comments