Professional diplomats will find little that is new or startling in the Wikileaks cables. For them the quality and content of reporting in the leaked cables is quite standard fare. Transmitting to Headquarters information gleaned from contacts, asse....
Amid growing international concerns, the People’s Republic of China presented its latest defence budget on 4 March 2011, a day ahead of the opening of the Republic’s Ninth National People's Congress. The budget shows a marked increase of 12.6 per....
Apropos our decision to resume a “comprehensive” dialogue with Pakistan, the question needs to be asked why we want to play the same game with our neighbour again and again when we know that it does not want to play by accepted rules, or interpre....
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Central Asia has a been of immense geopolitical significance for centuries, whether it was Tsarist Russia or Soviet Union and now the current world order after the demise of the Soviet Union, Central Asia continues to play an important role in the ....
Criticism of India’s perceived reluctance to endorse the democratic urgings surfacing in many Arab countries is misplaced. The Indian media has, of course, covered the upsurge in Egypt very extensively, to the point that outside observers may concl....
US Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Andrew J. Shapiro visited VIF on February 11, 2011 for an interaction with senior members of the Foundation. A range of issues, including the strategic dimension of the India-US b....
President Medvedev’s recent visit to India (December 21-22) has contributed to retrieving some of the ground being lost in India-Russia ties. A perception has been growing that the relevance of Russia to India has declined in the context of the c....
Hu Jintao, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) recently came visiting the US. For the reasons of protocol he donned a different hat and was feted by the mainstream American media as the President of the Peoples' Republic of Ch....
President Hu’s just concluded US visit has naturally attracted international attention, as the challenger was meeting the champion, as it were. The US is seen as a slowly declining power, and China a rapidly rising one. The dwindling of US power w....