Since 1996 Nepal has been experiencing violent conflict. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) initiated an armed insurgency drawing support from other groups in society, such as ethnic minorities, thus enlarging their capacity as a fighting and political force. After having introduced a multi-party democracy system in 1990 and drafted a new constitution, Nepal went from an aspiring democracy, to a state in internal turmoil. The current situation is that the internal actors: the Maoists, the political parties and an array of other actors (often excluded from power), are locked in a conflict where the core issues that have to be addressed are the division of power, minority rights, and gender issues among others. In addition to the internal political conditions, the geo-political position of the Himalayan State means that developments in Nepal are of direct interest to two regional hegemons: China and India. Thus the development of the conflict in Nepal is not only a question of national security, but also of regional stability.

In 2007, ISDP initiated a project on regional energy security in Northeast Asia. As the most militarized region in the world, it is perceived to be one of the greatest threats to international security. Countries in the region also face common problems of regional economic expansion. Competition and relations between Northeast Asian states have been driven by traditional concepts of security, such as state sovereignty and relative power. As a result, this has limited the prospect of multilateral engagement between states in the Northeast Asian region.

Climate change is held by some scholars to represent one of the greatest global security threats of the 21st century. The absence of effective cooperative structures and strategies between states also serves to exacerbate environmental problems. Strengthening regional institutional arrangements for more effective environmental governance is thus a key challenge. While the emerging centrality of environmental concerns in regional security and development is clear, mechanisms of regional cooperation are not fully developed. There are question marks over how to measure and react to trends, and the transit from problems to solutions.