Reports

Faced with China’s emerging hegemony in Asia, India is striving to defend its regional power status. New Delhi’s strategy is to invest in defense, align its policies with the United States and expand its regional alliances. However, it is increasingly concerned with becoming contained by China.

With a new import ban on 101 kinds of weapons, Narendra Modi is continuing his quest to expand India’s domestic arms industry. The lack of arms manufacturing has been a concern since the 1960s, and despite criticisms, the latest efforts are bearing some fruit. But India still has a slow ...

China and India are beefing up their military capabilities again. The two Asian giants are confronting each other in the traditional hotspots along their disputed border in the Himalayas and, more recently, in the Indian Ocean. War is still not in the cards, but the growing tension adds to the ...

For decades, India’s posture on the contested state of Jammu and Kashmir has been relatively stable, allowing autonomy in the region and seeking an agreement with Islamabad. Relations with Sunni Kashmiris have increasingly frayed, however, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun to shift its policy radically. India has ended ...

The world is rightly concerned about China’s violation of Hong Kong’s autonomy – but such moves are not limited to authoritarian regimes. India, the world’s largest democracy, has recently abolished autonomy for the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The situation there deserves even more attention since the region is at ...

India is forging profitable new partnerships with Sunni Arab states as its economic profile grows and its ties with the U.S. and Israel strengthen. The changes are causing tension with its old ally Iran, however, which New Delhi still needs to keep Pakistan in check. This balancing act will only ...

The conflict over Kashmir has led to three wars and countless skirmishes between India and Pakistan. As tensions are building up again in the region, outside powers cooperate to prevent the worst. However, Washington’s and Beijing’s influence over the decision-making process of the two nuclear weapons-armed states may be gradually ...

The latest round of fighting on the India-Pakistan border reveals a changed mood in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to order an air strike deep inside Pakistan in reprisal for a terrorist attack is evidence of a more muscular policy taking shape. If Mr. Modi is reelected in ...

The mountainous border between India, China and Pakistan is a dangerously underestimated trouble spot that could wreak havoc between Asia's two emerging superpowers.

Ahead of parliamentary elections this spring, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reinvented himself. Putting aside earlier economic reforms, his talk is mostly about social welfare. While the Indian leader focuses on wooing small-town voters, his government has put most foreign policy initiatives on hold. Whether Mr. Modi’s ruling BJP wins ...

India has long warned of the strategic dangers posed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Today, more and more countries are voicing their suspicions about the BRI’s potential effects. The project also faces difficulties due to financial problems within China. Beijing seems to be recasting the BRI as a ...

Pressure is building in relations between the U.S. and China, especially after the recent APEC summit. However, the heightened rhetoric used there could give both countries a chance to climb down and come to a deal. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will have a perfect opportunity to do so ...

India imports oil from Iran and buys arms from Russia, while trying to mend fences with Beijing. All this seems anathema to American policy, and now President Donald Trump has turned down an invitation to visit India in January. But reports that the U.S.-India relationship is on the rocks are ...

For decades, tensions have run high in South Asia, where the interests of China, India and Pakistan clash. Lately, Beijing and Islamabad have stepped up cooperation, while India and the United States have grown closer. The many unsettled conflicts in the region make the situation extremely volatile. For now, nuclear ...

In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a huge infrastructure-building project that includes investments in roads, railways and ports spanning three continents and two oceans. While Beijing claims the BRI is purely an attempt to better connect China with key markets, it is clearly using the investments ...

India has recently elevated its relationships with the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Iran, increasing its influence in the Middle East. But New Delhi has always preferred keeping the explosive region at arm’s length by dealing with only a few bilateral relationships. The Middle East’s shifting dynamics may make that ...

From trade protectionism to government overspending, bad economic ideas are weakening the world’s stability, while increasingly confrontational policies are adopted by global and regional powers.

India is happy that the United States has recommitted to fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Keeping them out of power will limit the influence of India’s longtime rival, Pakistan. But the U.S. commitment is tenuous, and President Donald Trump is a known skeptic of the war. Russian and Iranian support ...

Though the standoff on the Doklam Plateau between India and China seems to have been resolved, the countries’ Himalayan border will continue to be a source of tension. As emerging world powers with aspirations for hegemony, both are jockeying for influence in other countries in the region, such as Nepal ...

The military showdown between unarmed Chinese and Indian troops on the Doklam Plateau in the Himalayas is different than previous border tiffs in the region between these two Asian giants. The new dimensions reflect a changing relationship between Beijing and New Delhi, as both gain international clout. The current crisis ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has harnessed identity politics to shake up India’s inefficient economy and turn it into a global player. At home and abroad, he has proved an adept operator. Geopolitically, Mr. Modi’s most important move is an increasingly obvious realignment with the U.S., as part of a long-term ...

The complicated task of stabilizing Afghanistan is made even more complex by the support Pakistan and other countries give the Taliban. The United States will have to navigate this web of interests and alliances carefully. An increase in American troop levels could deter some of the players in the region ...

U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have plenty in common – the most important of which is a desire to counter Beijing’s rising influence. With that in mind, Washington could support Indian policy in Southeast Asia and help New Delhi build its role as a maritime ...

India has become the most vocal opponent of China’s massive Belt Road Initiative (BRI), which New Delhi sees as a thinly veiled geopolitical power play by Beijing. So far, China has not pushed back hard, and instead has consistently tried to woo the Indian side. This is because linking the ...