The emergence of AUKUS is being widely speculated as a moment of alliance power-shift in the Indo-pacific region. Theorizing whether or not Quad may be blocked out by AUKUS when the former’s first-ever in-person summit is about to be conducted on the sidelines of a UN summit is futile without examining the objectives of the […]
Month: September 2021
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked its new leader in a poll on 29 September who shall be sworn in as Japan’s 100th Prime Minister when Parliament convenes on 4 October. Since the LDP has a majority in both the Lower and Upper Houses, going through the Diet process is all but a formality. […]
In a surprising statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman on 22 September 2021 stated that the “…Galwan incident took place because India violated all signed agreements and treaties and encroached upon Chinese territory and illegally crossed the Line,” an allegation suitably responded to by MEA Spokesman. The entire schema in 2020 was Chinese deliberate, well-planned, premeditated belligerence. It […]
The United States’ and the United Kingdom’s overtures to Australia to help it acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered general-purpose attack submarines (SSNs) infuse a perilous complexity into the strategic Indo-Pacific environment, rendering it more difficult to denuclearise the region. Announcing the new trilateral security alliance for the Indo-Pacific on 15 September that they termed AUKUS […]
Bharadwaj, R., Bishop, D., Hazra, S., Pufaa, E., Kofi Annan, J. (2021). Climate-induced migration and modern slavery: a toolkit for policymakers. IIED, London Anti-Slavery International, London – https://pubs.iied.org/20441g Climate and development policymakers and planners urgently need to recognise that millions of people displaced by climate change are being, and will be, exposed to slavery in the […]
A significant percentage of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who seek safety in towns and cities will not return home. Yet this is a reality that international actors consistently fail to adapt to and as a result, the complex needs of urban IDPs and their host communities remain unmet. Solving these issues requires a fundamental rethinking […]
One year on from the launch of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature – when political leaders committed to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 – Xiaoting Hou Jones, drawing on examples from the Least Developed Countries, sets out why locally-led nature-based solutions are indispensable for turning the pledge into action and delivering a green COVID-19 recovery. […]
While the post-COVID-19 world looks at ‘building back better’, little has changed for artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over the last 12 months, IIED’s research in partnership with Afrewatch DRC has found nascent efforts to improve the sector to be at risk of creating “islands of responsibility” while failing to drive the broad based societal and environmental […]
Last week’s Food Systems Summit raised questions about global governance models in a policy area fundamental to everyone’s lives. Lorenzo Cotula argues that, without clear decision-making rules and effective structures to manage power differentials, bringing diverse actors together produces ‘capture’ rather than inclusion. Food Systems Summit: implications for global food governance | International Institute for […]
The Biden administration has accepted the fact that CVID—the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantling of the North Korean nuclear program—will not occur under the Kim Jong-un administration. The time has come to find other realistic options. The North Korean Nuclear Program: The End of CVID? (besacenter.org)
On 04 September, a tripartite agreement was signed between the Centre, the Assam government, and the five insurgent groups’ active in the Karbi Anglong region of Assam. According to the Memorandum of Settlement -as the accord is stated- “will ensure greater devolution of autonomy to the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, protection of identity, language, culture, […]
China is today upgrading its military posture along India’s border at a scale that is difficult to conceal and a pace that is threatening. For India, deciphering China’s true designs thus remains the key question today. A recent article[i] in a leading daily suggested that the PLA in Ladakh was preparing for ‘a long haul’ – suggesting […]