The ceasefire declared on May 10, 2025, between India and Pakistan represents a momentous yet tenuous lull in a protracted and volatile bilateral conflict that has defined South Asian geopolitics for decades. Orchestrated largely through behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts by the United States, Russia, and many more states this fragile accord emerges in the aftermath of a grave provocation: a devastating […]

Escape forward For decades, the performance of Germany’s economy—Europe’s largest—has been fuelled by selling goods to China. This export-orientated approach was essential to the German industrial-led economic model. But those times are over and Berlin now faces a dilemma. The world has been hit by two “China shocks” since the turn of the millennium. The first followed China’s accession to […]

Operation Sindoor marked a bold and meticulously executed military response by India to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years. Carried out between the night of May 6 and the early hours of May 10, 2025, the operation was launched in retaliation for the brutal massacre in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22. In that incident, heavily […]

China, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar, has historically been a home for various insurgent factions advocating for autonomy or secession over many decades. In 2015, India expressed growing apprehension regarding escalating violence in the Northeast, particularly after the unsuccessful attempt to renew a ceasefire with the Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K), predominantly based in Myanmar. On […]

Talk about mixed signals. At the beginning of May, a prominent critic of Emomali Rahmon’s government in Tajikistan, Sharofiddin Gadoev, gave an interview to the Afghan television channel TOLOnews tearing into the 72-year-old strongman. Days later, the Taliban’s chief spokesman issued a upbeat assessment of bilateral ties, praising the “positive relations” between Dushanbe and Kabul and pledging cooperation. The contrasting […]

The Technology and Security Initiative (TSI) ought to be more strategic, especially at a time of geopolitical displacement. This is an opportunity to fuse two deep technology ecosystems to co-produce and co-innovate solutions, products, and emerging technologies of the future.

Children in India and Pakistan are not taught to fear monsters or the devil but their own neighbor. ‘The enemy’ they are told. An image carefully crafted from narratives of history they have not lived and the hate they have not felt. A Societal curriculum injected in the minds of commoners in India and Pakistan sets the stage for war […]

Before India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire mediated by the US, the two countries were in a phase of an undeclared war which could chart an uncertain and dangerous course dictated by hyper-nationalism where rationalism and self-reflection would have given way to simplified perspectives about the other. The other could be perceived as a source of all problems even […]

The re-escalation of militant violence in Balochistan, most recently marked by the establishment of militant blockades in Barkhan and the storming of a Levies post in Kachhi district, underscores a critical national security dilemma that Pakistan can no longer afford to defer. The recent surge in attacks—claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) under the operational umbrella of “Operation Herof”—is […]