Going backwards from recent acts of Chinese belligerence and barbaric conduct in Galwan (sic) totally divorced from all ethos of soldiering, into events of the recent past, a pattern emerges. A pattern of Chinese aggressiveness, arrogance and more; unfreezing and heating up the border issue with India with a stink of hegemony and while the temperatures are high on both sides, carrying out military drills just across the border as if to send a crude message to India.

Although India was among the first countries to develop ties with the European community in the 1960s, the country’s present level of engagement with the European Union (EU) is not commensurate with the existing potential. The four-year long hiatus between the twelfth (2012) and thirteenth India-EU summits (2016) marked the lowest phase of the partnership. With the resumption of dialogue since 2016, a revival of their relations has followed but still lacks the required momentum.

Until recently, a few books have been published on the history of Central Asian Khanates of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand. In his book, Levi C. Scott, a professor of Central Asian history at Ohio State University, focuses on the historical significance of Khanate of Kokand in a broader Eurasian context. The chapters in the book outline the formation of the Khanate of Kokand and subsequent socio-political and economic developments, which paved the way for its decline.

Covid-19 was a predictable and avoidable event, if the world had been more transparent and accountable, and less greedy and ambitious. It is important to analyse fast-evolving international developments, thoughts and trends to grasp the choices and imperatives ahead. What India needs to do, both internally and externally, may be assisted by examining extreme scenarios of a post-Covid world and a net-assessment covering variables such as geopolitical compulsions, examining ‘Pax-Sinica’ and its economic and security implications, and trends affecting globalisation and multilateralism.