Vivekananda International Foundation organized two think tank interactions and two expert group meetings through webinars on events and topics in the month of November 2021. The think tank interactions were with premier counterparts in USA and in Taiwan. The expert and interaction groups provide layers of understanding and contextualized the present discourse from an Indian perspective.

Random Thoughts 2021 touches upon unusual range of subjects, namely from emerging civilisational, religious and historical issues; to out-of-the-box suggestions for astronomy-based education for conflict avoidance, to how liberal democracies are short-termist as compared to long-termist autocratic China; to how the liberal and civilisational democracies like India are different, to how Indian democracy is under threat both from autocratic China and Western liberalism; to how market economics is distinct from market societies, to contemporary geopolitical, geo-economics, geo-strategic issue

This paper seeks to investigate the factors that allowed China to emerge as a major player in the Oceania. The paper argues that the traditional powers in the region, the ANZUS, have viewed the region predominantly through the geostrategic lens and in the process, have ignored the core concerns of the Pacific States and instead securitized the region driven by their narrow strategic goals, creating a vacuum and a readymade ground for China to step up and assume a gradually increasing influential role in the region with relative ease and without any credible resistance.

To discuss the trends in Indo-US relations and the potential trajectory of the bilateral partnership, the Vivekananda International Foundation organised a virtual Vimarsh on 29 October. The opening remarks were made by the VIF director Dr. Arvind Gupta. A detailed presentation on the theme was made by career diplomat Amb. Arun K Singh who has previously served as the Indian ambassador in the US, France and Israel. He is currently a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) as well as a distinguished fellow at VIF. Trends in Indo-US Relations