ISDP Voices

Thailand has yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourism-dependent economy shaken by severe border restrictions saw arrivals slowing to a near standstill. When borders began to open in 2021, the Kingdom saw just over 106,000 foreign tourists, a drop from 6.7 million in 2020. At its apex, Thailand drew as many as […]

The Islamic terrorist organization Hamas carried out a large-scale and brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. On the surface, this attack was not a response to the West’s counter-China strategy. But there is indeed a strong possibility that there was a connection. I will explain the connection below, identifying the impact on the […]

This year on September 9-10, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the crucial task of hosting the leaders (at least most) of the world’s developed and developing nations for the 18th G20 Summit, marking a first for India. The G20 is a forum accounting for over 80 percent of the world’s economic output, 75 percent […]

The rise of China in the international system and the emerging U.S.-China strategic rivalry have affected a large section of the globe, including international institutions and businesses. The European Union (EU) is no exception. Europe is at a critical juncture due to its close strategic and economic ties with the U.S., and, China being its […]

The unexpected political developments in 2022 kept the world on edge due to Russia’s military buildup near the border with Ukraine leaving nearly 500,000 people dead. It is evident that Russia’s reason behind the military attack, now a war, is highly strategic and goes beyond mere territorial ambitions. This is primarily because it revealed a […]

According to a recently released special report by the United States (U.S.) State Department’s Global Engagement Centre, China has been found to be spending billions of dollars to expand its disinformation campaigns around the world, resulting in critical constraints in the freedom of speech and reliability of information. The report noted that Beijing’s “global information […]

Canada-India relations have reached a new low with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s public accusation in the Canadian Parliament that the Indian government may be involved in the June 2023 assassination of a Canadian citizen who was also a Sikh activist. This highly unusual public accusation was the result of intelligence services communicating to the Canadian […]

India’s growing power depends on its reliance on the seas for commerce. The Indian Navy has ambitiously planned to have a 175-ship force by 2035 where most platforms would be indigenized. The Indian Navy also seeks to be capable of operating in both the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions. The Philippines too is stealthily rising as a middle power, yet with so much to […]

In a world characterized by the increasing polarization between two giants, China and the U.S., as well as an apparently endless conflict in Eastern Europe, the BRICS, originally composed of Brazil, China, Russia, India, and South Africa, recently embarked on a bold expansion leading to the inclusion of six new members. This transformation of the […]

As U.S. influence declines worldwide, a battleground has emerged, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, which is a crossroads of supply chains, geopolitical dynamics, and future wealth. The UK, U.S., and Australia are slowly cottoning on to this, and consequently devising new and adapting existing Indo-Pacific strategies. For example, the most recent G-7 meeting brought in […]