International Affairs

Strategic Realism, Global Vision
Strategic analysis of global geopolitics, major power competition, regional conflicts, and evolving international order shaping the 21st century security environment.

An Emerald Set in Gold: Great Nicobar and India’s Strategic Reckoning with the Malacca Chokepoint

The Island That Could Change India’s Maritime Equation

Great Nicobar may be far from mainland India, but its strategic significance reaches far beyond the island itself. Located close to the Malacca Strait, the project combines maritime infrastructure, connectivity, economic ambition and defence potential at a critical Indo-Pacific chokepoint. This analysis examines why India is finally converting geography into strategic capability, what it means for China's Malacca dilemma, how it could strengthen India's maritime role, and why strategic necessity must still be balanced with environmental and tribal safeguards. This has been discussed by me in various international forums, some of which are attached in this analysis.

BRICS LOGO, MEA, India

BRICS at Twenty: India’s Moment to Turn Aspiration into Architecture

BRICS enters its third decade at a moment when the international order is undergoing profound strategic transformation. Its expanded membership gives the grouping unprecedented demographic, economic and geopolitical weight—but also exposes deep internal contradictions. As India assumes the BRICS Chairmanship in 2026, I share an analysis whether New Delhi can convert this diversity into practical cooperation, strengthen the voice of the Global South and help build a more representative multipolar order—without turning BRICS into an anti-Western coalition. There is still one month for the Summit and events do seem to be moving fast in optimistic and challenging side before India sets the stage for the Summit.

Is Pakistan Imploding? Can US and China Afford to Let It Fail?

Pakistan is not collapsing overnight—it is imploding in slow motion.

Despite economic bankruptcy, insurgencies, political repression and institutional decay, Islamabad continues to attract extraordinary support from Washington, Beijing and Gulf capitals.

Why?

Because Pakistan has mastered the art of remaining strategically indispensable even while becoming economically unsustainable.

Pakistan presents one of the greatest strategic paradoxes of modern geopolitics. A state battling insurgencies, mounting debt, shrinking democratic space and deep economic distress continues to command disproportionate global attention. This article analyses why the United States, China and Gulf states continue investing in Pakistan's survival, why these interventions cannot reform its structural weaknesses, and what India's long-term strategic response should be.

This analysis explains why the world's major powers keep rescuing Pakistan, why those rescues cannot solve its structural problems, and what lessons India must draw from Pakistan's paradox.

Cartographic Warfare: China’s Silent Offensive to Redraw Borders Without Fighting

China's repeated publication of official maps claiming Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, Taiwan and the South China Sea is far more than diplomatic posturing. It is part of a long-term strategy of Cartographic Warfare—integrating legal warfare, psychological warfare and narrative dominance within Beijing's doctrine of Active Defence. This article examines how maps have become instruments of grey-zone conflict, why Nepal and Bangladesh illustrate the regional spread of cartographic politics, and what India must do to counter this evolving challenge. As geopolitical competition increasingly shifts into the cognitive battlespace, India must respond not merely with diplomatic protests but through an integrated strategy combining military preparedness, legal documentation, strategic communication and international partnerships.

Maps are no longer passive representations of geography—they have become active instruments of geopolitical competition. China's repeated cartographic claims since 2023 demonstrate a carefully calibrated strategy aimed at manufacturing legal legitimacy, shaping public perception and gradually altering the status quo without conventional conflict. This article explores how cartography has evolved into an integral component of China's Three Warfares strategy and assesses the implications for India, the Indo-Pacific and the future of grey-zone competition.

India at a Strategic Crossroads: Why Strategic Autonomy Matters More Than Ever

As global geopolitics undergoes a profound transformation, India confronts simultaneous challenges on its Himalayan borders, in the Indian Ocean, and across West Asia. This article examines why strategic autonomy, indigenous defence capability, and calibrated multi-engagement remain India's most effective response to an increasingly transactional international order. As Washington and Beijing recalibrate their relationship, India faces its most consequential strategic choices since the Cold War2.0. The answers lies in building capabilities and maintaining genuine strategic autonomy till then.

Pakistan Paradox, An Imperfect Partition : A Nuclear State at War with its Neighbours, its Periphery and Itself

Seventy-nine years after Partition, Pakistan remains trapped in a cycle of geopolitical confrontation, domestic instability and economic dependence. While headlines focus on Taliban attacks, unrest in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir, Baloch insurgency or repeated IMF bailouts, these are symptoms rather than causes.

This article argues that Pakistan's enduring instability originates in the hurried colonial partition of 1947, compounded by decades of military dominance, proxy warfare and great-power patronage. It analyses the evolution of Pakistan's security doctrine, its changing relationship with the Taliban, internal fault lines, Cold War legacies and the country's strategic relevance in an emerging multipolar world.

Rather than viewing these crises separately, this article presents them as interconnected outcomes of a state whose foundational contradictions remain unresolved.

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BRICS LOGO, MEA, India
BRICS at Twenty: India’s Moment to Turn Aspiration into Architecture
An Emerald Set in Gold: Great Nicobar and India’s Strategic Reckoning with the Malacca Chokepoint