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India’s Soft Power and Heritage: A Gift to the World
Amb Bhaswati Mukherjee Commentary

In the foreign policy context, soft power and heritage have become as important a tool of diplomacy for States as hard power. It promotes inter-cultural dialogue, essential to counter the multiple challenges to the existing world order by non-State ....

July 04, 2018 Historical and Civilisational Studies , Commentary , India’s soft power , India’s civilisation heritage
Exhibition ‘India and the World’
Dr Arpita Mitra Commentary

In view of the completion of 70 years of Indian independence, the National Museum, New Delhi, conceived a project that has finally materialised as a landmark exhibition, India and the World: A History in Nine Stories (inaugurated in May 2018 i....

July 03, 2018 Historical and Civilisational Studies , Commentary , Exhibition , India and the World , New Delhi , India’s pre-modern global contact
Will Indo-US Relations Survive The Strain of Geopolitics?
Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF Commentary

The US permanent envoy to the UN Nikki Haley, known for her hardline views on Iran and Russia, visited India from June 26-28, 2018. The visit should have strengthened Indo-US relations but the impact seems to have been just the opposite. The percepti....

July 02, 2018 International Relations and Diplomacy , US , Commentary , Russia , Indo-US partnership , US sanctions on Iran
Is ‘Democratic Quad’ a Viable Construct?
Dr Vijay Sakhuja Commentary

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) members - Australia, India, Japan and the United States (US) - met in June 2018 in Singapore on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) senior officials’ meeting, and later issue....

July 02, 2018 International Relations and Diplomacy , Indo-Pacific , Commentary , QUAD , RIMPAC , Strategic Pertnerships
Beginning of a New End in the Korean Peninsula
Dr Teshu Singh Commentary

After almost three and a half months of high-powered diplomacy leading up to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in North Korea, the first meeting between a sitting United States and a North Korean leader took place on 12 June 2018 in Singapore. The mee....

June 28, 2018 International Relations and Diplomacy , Indo-Pacific , Commentary , US-North Korea relations , Denuclearisation of North Korea
Jordan is at the Cross Roads
Amb Anil Trigunayat, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Commentary

During the last weeks of the month of Ramadan, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan faced the public wrath and continued demonstrations due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sponsored taxation regime and a poor state of the economy and opportunity ....

June 21, 2018 International Relations and Diplomacy , West Asia , Commentary , Jordan unrest , Government change in Jordan
Yoga and an Indian Framework of Ethics
Dr Arpita Mitra Commentary

In September 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the world by surprise when he proposed the adoption of an International Yoga Day (IYD) that will help create a change in lifestyle and consciousness, ....

June 21, 2018 Historical and Civilisational Studies , Commentary , International Yoga Day , Yoga , Yog
OHCHR Report on Kashmir: Inconsistencies Exposes Malicious Intent
Brig (retd) Rahul Bhonsle Commentary

It is ironic that on a day when the entire nation was mourning the killing of one of the most respected journalists of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Mr Sujaat Bukhari, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published t....

June 20, 2018 Governance and Political Studies , Commentary , Biased OHCHR report , inconsistencies in OHCHR Report
The Trump-Kim Summit: A Mixed Bag
Amb Anil Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Commentary

The fact that the much talked about Summit meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim happened on June 12 in Singapore is an achievement by itself. The world would have been on edge without it. The short document signed, even though shorn of c....

June 20, 2018 International Relations and Diplomacy , Indo-Pacific , Commentary , US-North Korea Summit , Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula
UNHRC Report on ‘Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018'
Amb Bhaswati Mukherjee Commentary

Created as a follow-up to the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights in June 1993, the Office of the newly created High Commissioner for Human Rights was intended to ensure a balanced and equitable implementation of all human rights, be they ‘political....

June 18, 2018 Governance and Political Studies , Commentary , Prejudiced Report on Kashmir , Credibility of UNHRC
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