As Europe disappears, Eurasia coheres. The supercontinent is becoming one fluid, comprehensible unit of trade and conflict, as the Westphalian system of states weakens and older, imperial legacies – Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Turkish – become paramount. Every crisis from Central Europe to the ethnic-Han Chinese heartland is now interlinked. There is one singular battlespace. Read […]
In concrete terms, the Belt and Road initiative is an immensely ambitious development campaign through which China wants to boost trade and stimulate economic growth across Asia and beyond. It hopes to do so by building massive amounts of infrastructure connecting it to countries around the globe. By some estimates, China plans to pump $150bn […]
World leaders are gathering in Beijing this weekend for a big summit touting China’s infrastructure spending spree to connect Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The project, known as the Belt and Road Initiative—or “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) in straight translation—was introduced by president Xi Jinping in 2013 as a land-and-sea version of […]
China will gather its friends and allies together for its biggest diplomatic event of the year in May, a summit on its New Silk Road plan, with most Asian leaders due to attend but only one from a G7 nation, the Italian prime minister. Read Here – Reuters
The troika will be a game-changer in swaying the regional balance of power against India’s strategic interest. India seems to have been cornered by this tactical regional understanding where Pakistan has emerged as the pivotal point of regional politics. The change of guard in the United States has further complicated the situation for India, since […]
For half a millennium, Russian foreign policy has been characterized by soaring ambitions that have exceeded the country’s capabilities. Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 square miles per day for hundreds of years, eventually covering one-sixth of the earth’s […]
Although Central Asia holds many strategic advantages for India, not much has been done to take this forward. But recent developments in our neighbourhood could serve as the much-needed wake up call to New Delhi to pursue its regional policy plans. Read Here – The Wire
India’s SCO membership could now play a bigger role in ensuring greater energy cooperation between energy producers and consumers by linking Central Asia and South Asia, wherein Iran can be instrumental in facilitating the SCO Energy Club by becoming a major energy trading hub through the opening up of its Chabahar port. Read Here – […]
The name Silk Road conjures images of caravans, desert steppes and adventurers like Marco Polo navigating the ancient trading routes connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. China’s modern-day adaptation aims to revive those routes via a network of railways, ports, pipelines and highways. Read Here – Bloomberg View
The AIIB is infrastructure as a tool of grand strategy, it’s infrastructure as a tool of foreign policy, it’s infrastructure as a tool of empire-building and hegemony, and within that there are competitive dynamics. But, first and foremost, it’s a Chinese project that is multilateralised, in the same way that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization […]
looking beyond borders 