Strategic Analysis

Global Order in COVID-19 Contagion: A Literary and Philosophical Interpretation

This article interprets the COVID-19 pandemic as a profound existential event that exposed the moral, political, and structural fragilities of the global order. Drawing on existentialist philosophy—Sartre’s ontology of freedom,...

Swati Pal |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Ethnocratic Statecraft and Conflict: The Case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

An ethno-conflict erupted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh in 1975 which lasted for more than two decades. It came to a formal end when the Bangladesh government...

Bhumitra Chakma |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Material and Ideational Factors Behind Conceptualisation of the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor

In recent years, partnerships with non-conventional allies have emerged as the norm in the world order, amid dynamic global polarity and unanticipated challenges. The India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) announced...

Priyanshi Agrawal |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Minilateralism for Reinforcing ASEAN Centrality?: The Case of Intra-Regional Mechanisms in the Mekong Region

This paper examines how ASEAN-led minilateralism in the Mekong subregion contributes to reinforcing ASEAN centrality amid great power competition, particularly between the US and China. Some intra-regional initiatives such as...

Ha Hai Hoang |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Soft Power Through Education: Realist Regional Dynamics in Asia

This paper examines education as a realist tool for soft power in West and East Asia, responding to Jane Knight’s call for regionalisation research. Challenging her liberal vision of knowledge...

Char Leung |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Education as ‘Soft Power’: Mapping the Role of Education in Strengthening India’s Ties with Afghanistan

Hilal Ramzan , Javid Ahmad Ahanger |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Liberal International Order: Bursting at the Seams

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, US political scientist Francis Fukuyama in his book The End of History and the Last Man (Citation1992) triumphantly declared that...

Adil Rasheed |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and his Biographers

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (1905–1982) occupies an enigmatic position in Kashmir’s political memory. To his supporters, he remains the Sher-i-Kashmir; to his critics, a symbol of political compromise. Lockwood observed long...

Mohammad Asif Najar , Yasir Hamid Bhat |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Aid, Politics and the War of Narratives in the US–Pakistan Relations: A Case Study of Kerry Lugar Berman Act

Pakistan has longed for external patronage, mainly because of its ambition to achieve parity with its eastern neighbour, India. It has often got external support, for two reasons: firstly, its...

Nazir Ahmad Mir |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Evolution of India’s Polar Policies

As the Polar Regions become pivotal to global politics, is India doing enough to keep up the momentum? This inquiry lies at the heart of Evolution of India’s Polar Policies,...

Rudrani Garg |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Indo-Soviet Relations

Three main points need to be kept in view in a discussion of the background against which Indo-Soviet relations have developed. First, Jawaharlal Nehru enunciated the policy of non-alignment and...

Girilal Jain |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Ayub’s Foreign Policy – From Alliance to Equidistance

The departure of President Ayub from the Pakistani scene after a decade of almost unchallenged supremacy provides us with an opportune moment for the evaluation of his contribution in the...

Mohammed Ayoob |
November-December 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

The US-China Competition in Southeast Asia from the Perspective of Offensive Realism

In the aftermath of the Cold War, the international order has undergone profound transformation with China’s rapid rise posing a challenge to the US hegemony. The competition between these two...

Nguyen Hung Son |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

How Does Fear Motivate States to Go Nuclear? The Case of Pakistan

This article examines how fear motivates the states to pursue nuclear weapons, contributing to the growing literature on emotions in International Relations and strategic studies. It reviews the concept of...

Ido Gadi Raz |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Transformation of Islam in Central Asia: From Faith to Traditional Islam

The article contends that the expanding regional and global terrorism, purportedly by the ‘Islamists’, led to the transformation of Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia, from ‘faith’ to ‘traditional’ Islam. This...

Mushtaq A. Kaw |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Maritime Security and Processes in India: A Need for Review/Revamping

India’s maritime sector is central to the country’s security and economic well-being, given its vast coastline and strategic position. India’s approach to maritime security has evolved in response to new...

P.S.S. Uday Kiran |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Legitimising Proactivity: Japan’s Use of the FOIP in Defence Export Policy

Japan’s security policy has transitioned through three distinct phases: passive, active and now proactive. Initially, Japan adhered to a defensive stance, avoiding active engagement beyond its borders. In the active...

Shahana Thankachan |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Dual-Use Satellites and Strategic Ambiguity: Toward Robust Legal and Normative Frameworks

The increasing inability to distinguish between civilian and military uses of satellite systems has created a governance gap that undermines crisis stability and confidence-building measures. Dual-use satellites blur the line...

Akanksha Kalyan |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

Saudi-Pakistan Defence Pact and India’s Evolving Engagement in West Asia

The Saudi-Pakistan Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), signed on September 17,2025, is a dramatic development amidst a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape in West and South Asia. Pakistan’s strategic elite has...

Deepika Saraswat |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis

India in SCO: India’s Diplomatic Balancing in a Constrained Multilateral Order

Given the continuing expansion of India’s multilateral experiments and engagements, now is an opportune time to ponder over how India reconciles its cosmopolitan moral principles with strategic pragmatism in multilateral...

Manish , Gayatri Rajpurohit |
September-October 2025 |
Strategic Analysis