Category: Comparative Politics

• Belligerence and Silence: Explaining Chinese Actions Along the LAC in Ladakh

  What should be concerning in the wake of Galwan and the reported loss of lives also of Chinese troops, is that Beijing will now be particularly prone to viewing any Indian action as provocative and seek to respond in an overwhelming manner as a way of saving face.

• Reorienting India’s China Policy Towards Greater Transparency

  The deaths of Indian soldiers along the LAC at Galwan is a watershed moment in India-China ties. If the relationship is not to spin out of control, India needs to develop military, economic and intellectual muscle certainly but also adopt transparency and openness to questions as a central plank of the reworking of its China…

• Why a post-COVID-19 global order led by China is only a distant threat

  The world order might require changing but China is not going to be able to take leadership for political and economic reasons

• The Coronavirus Epidemic: Some Economic Considerations for India

  The coronavirus epidemic and its fallout globally must also remind us of the economic opportunities that India has not been able to exploit in its undeclared competition with China.

• Incompetence, Insecurity and an Epidemic

  Freedom of speech and the diversity of opinion that it engenders are not a reflection of seditious tendencies endangering state security even if they might threaten the regime in power.

• Of Elections, Fake News and China

  Indian citizens could perhaps learn much from the Taiwanese election campaign, where various civic groups actively fact-checked each candidate’s speech and confronted them in real time over inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

• Another Rajapaksa at the Helm in Sri Lanka: The China Factor

  Given that China has both more money than India and diplomatic capacity that matches that of the US, it will remain a significant player in Sri Lanka.

• China Worries in India’s RCEP Decision

  There appears to be a lack of willingness by the Indian government to call China out publicly on its double standards and its unmet promises even as it continues to be obliquely referred to as a concern by several BJP leaders.

• The Many Instruments of Chinese Foreign Policy

  India will need to match China with a capable and expanded foreign service working in coordination with political parties, business communities, intellectual elites and its diaspora but also display adherence to values that are genuinely attractive to the peoples of other nations to push an ‘Indian model’ of politics and development that can challenge the…