Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
मनोहर पर्रिकर रक्षा अध्ययन एवं विश्लेषण संस्थान

Publication

The Russia-Ethiopia Nuclear Partnership: A Catalyst for Regional Influence and Multi-polar Geopolitics

The Russia-Ethiopia nuclear partnership marks a significant shift in Africa's energy and geopolitical landscape, positioning nuclear power as both a developmental tool and an instrument of strategic alignment. Formalised in September 2025 between Rosatom and Ethiopian Electric Power, the agreement reflects Ethiopia's pursuit of long-term energy security, industrialisation, and technological autonomy amid rising domestic demand, climate-induced vulnerabilities, and strained relations with Western partners. Embedded within Ethiopia's accession to BRICS and engagement with the New Development Bank, the nuclear deal underscores Addis Ababa's recalibration towards a multipolar order and diversified alliances. For Russia, nuclear diplomacy has emerged as a key mechanism to expand influence in Africa by offering concessional financing, technology transfer, and integrated infrastructure solutions. Regionally, Ethiopia's nuclear ambitions intersect with existing Nile Basin rivalries, particularly with Egypt, raising implications for energy geopolitics within BRICS and the Horn of Africa. The paper argues that nuclear cooperation functions as a strategic infrastructure of alignment, reshaping regional power dynamics and global governance pathways.

The G20 in South Africa: Outcomes and Assessment

The 2025 G20 Summit under South Africa's presidency marked a pivotal moment in contemporary multilateralism, highlighting Africa's growing role in global governance. Building on successive Global South presidencies, the summit foregrounded debt distress, climate vulnerability, and critical mineral governance within a fragmented geopolitical context. While the adoption of a leaders' declaration demonstrated diplomatic success, outcomes remained largely incremental, with limited structural reform in global financial and trade architectures. The summit exposed a key paradox, normative recognition of developing country concerns without substantive redistribution. Ultimately, it underscored both the persistence of multilateralism and the need for deeper institutional transformation to address systemic inequalities.

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, Camus’ ethics of solidarity, Foucault’s bio- politics, and Agamben’s state of exception—it argues that the pandemic mirrored the human condition of interdependence, anxiety, and moral choice. Through literature and philosophy, crises are revealed as tests of responsibility within constraint, as tensions between freedom and surveillance, sovereignty and solidarity, inequality and justice. The study also integrates Marxian critiques of global capitalism and analyses how vaccine nationalism, digital surveillance, and emergency governance redefined sovereignty and ethics. It concludes by articulating an ‘existential diplomacy’ grounded in recognition, responsibility, and redistributive justice, signalling a movement away from technocratic management towards moral and democratic accountability.

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 and the ethno-guerilla group reached a negotiated settlement in 1997. Since then, a peace process has been underway, but violence still persists. This article illustrates why ethno-conflict erupted in the CHT and why violence still continues. It argues that Bangladesh since its inception has been an ethnocratic state and the ethnocratic statecraft has led to the rise of ethno-conflict and contributed to the persistence of violence in the post-accord CHT.

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 at the 2023 G20 Summit exemplifies this trend, linking three diverse regions with shared vulnerabilities and interests. This article aims to identify the key material and ideational drivers behind IMEC and analyse its opportunities and challenges. The European Union’s search to de-risk their engagements, Gulf countries’ push for non-oil economic diversification and India’s adept navigation of shifting alliances presents a congruence of their interests. Despite normative differences of the three regions, shared geo-economic and geo-political concerns underpin IMEC’s vision. While opportunities arise from the October 2025 Gaza Peace Summit, implementation faces hurdles from Middle East instability.

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 the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy, the Mekong River Commission, and the ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Cooperation are examined to evaluate how ASEAN states employ minilateralism to sustain cooperation amid both development needs and intensifying great power competition in the Mekong subregion. ASEAN-led minilateralism is neither purely normative nor purely strategic. Instead, it is a pragmatic blend of cooperation and competition, designed to preserve institutional coherence while responding to geopolitical volatility.

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 diplomacy, it argues that states leverage higher education to navigate power struggles, counter external influence, and secure national interests. Historical and contemporary examples reveal education’s unpredictable outcomes, necessitating state learning from successful models. While complementing hard and economic power, education’s ideological divides, notably China’s non-liberal norms, fuel regional rivalry, risking instability. Asian states, including India, can strategically use education to enhance security and influence in a competitive global order.

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 the event marked the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government (Fukuyama Citation1992). However, time has since mellowed the now septuagenarian Fukuyama, whose earlier writings made him an ideologue of neo-conservative thought. In his book, Liberalism and Its Discontents, he accepts that the war-like misadventures of neo-liberals and the race and gender-based Left-wing identity politics of US ‘progressives’ have increased inequality around the world and caused the perception that liberal ideas are outdated (Fukuyama Citation2022).

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