Economy Policy And Society
119 results
Burgenstock and the New Reality of Power in the Middle East
The US-Iran talks in Switzerland may have reduced the immediate risk of war. But they did little to alter the Middle East's underlying balance of power. Iran remains central to the region's strategic calculations, Israel's concerns remain unresolved, and American leverage appears more limited than many assumed.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
Breaking Ranks: The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the Unravelling of Gulf Consensus
As the UAE exits OPEC, long-simmering economic and strategic divergences with Saudi Arabia begin to reshape Gulf politics and energy markets
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
The War in Iran: The Illusion of Decisive Force
One month in, the limits of conventional military power are being laid bare. As a “dual chokehold” on global energy flows emerges, the old security umbrella of the Gulf states is being dismantled. It is forcing a permanent re-pricing of both regional and global risk.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
How Iran Is Turning the Global Economy Into a Battlefield
As the conflict with the United States and Israel intensifies, Iran’s new leadership is signalling a prolonged confrontation—one that combines conventional warfare with pressure on global energy flows and supply chains.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The US–Israel War on Iran: The Risks to India’s Strategic Hedging
Energy dependence, remittance flows and trade corridors reveal how deeply India’s economy is tied to stability in West Asia. Part II of a two-part series.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The US–Israel War on Iran: Energy, Power and Regional Disruption
Energy chokepoints, proxy escalation and great-power recalibration are reshaping the Gulf and unsettling the global order. Part I of a two-part series.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
Tariffs Are the Noise. Realignment Is the Signal
Even if Trump’s tariffs disappear, the forces reshaping global trade—geopolitics, security concerns and reconfigured regional blocs—are here to stay
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
India’s Trade Deals and the New Meaning of Strategic Autonomy
What India’s agreements with the US and EU reveal about power, policy space, and calibrated accommodation
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
America’s Iran Trap Is Closing
Carrier strike groups, nuclear deadlines and a brittle regime in Tehran are converging on a moment where Washington may discover that every move—strike, sabotage or restraint—ends in escalation
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
Trade Is the New Geopolitics—and India Must Learn to Play It
Why India’s future power will be shaped less by diplomacy and more by trade architecture
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Iran at the Brink: Five Scenarios That Could Reshape the Region
Economic collapse, political revolt and great-power rivalry converge in Iran’s most dangerous moment in decades.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
A World Without Endgames
What prolonged global conflicts mean for Europe, China—and India’s narrowing strategic space.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The Year the World Learned to Live Without America
How Trump’s tariffs, Europe’s capitulation, China’s counter-moves and India’s narrowing room for manoeuvre reshaped the global order.
DN
Dinesh Narayanan
Independent journalist | Author of The RSS and The Making of The Deep Nation
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
2025 in Review | Episode 5: India’s Strategic Tightrope in a Fragmenting World
Ambassador Shyam Saran on a post-American order, a slowing China, and how India must balance room for manoeuvre with hard-headed realism on Russia, the US and China.
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
2025 in Review | Episode 4: Europe’s Year of Hard Choices
Europe entered 2025 already strained by war, fractured politics, and economic anxiety. As Philippe Le Corre explains, this was the year when three pressures collided—an unending war in Ukraine, a drastically altered transatlantic dynamic under Trump 2.0, and a more openly competitive China
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
2025 in Review | Episode 3: America’s Year of Disruption
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute on how Trump’s second term reshaped global trade, defense alignments, and America’s domestic equilibrium—and why the turbulence may be far from over
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Who Will Win the MAGA Crown?
Three competing visions inside the MAGA movement—over AI, immigration and national sovereignty—may determine America’s technological doctrine for the next decade
SW
Sundeep Waslekar
President | Strategic Foresight Group
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
2025 in Review | Episode 2: The Erosion of Global Norms & Accelerating AI
Sundeep Waslekar, president of Strategic Foresight Group, on a West in turmoil, an international order in free fall, and an AI race racing ahead of rules.
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
2025 in Review | Episode 1: China and the Trumpian Reset
How does China see the Trumpian reset of the global order? What's really happening inside its domestic economy? And are we seeing signs of a thaw with India? A conversation with Chinese economist Prof. Yao Yang
FF
Founding Fuel
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
The Tariff Trap: Why Economic Weapons Misfire in the Age of Silicon
Tariffs were designed for a world of steel and sugar. They’re hopelessly out of sync with the quantum-entangled world of semiconductors
SP
Shishir Prasad
Senior Business Journalist
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
From Gaza to Doha:How Israel’s Strike on Qatar Shook the Middle East
Israel’s strike on Qatar has triggered a dangerous new phase in the Middle East — exposing Washington’s conflicting roles as ally and broker
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
Trump's Tariff Gambit and the Global Trade Dilemma
In the Indo-Pacific, America’s transactionalism collides with its strategic incoherence—posing hard choices for its partners
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Trump’s hardball tactics to extract minerals & peace in Ukraine
Ukraine’s critical minerals deal with the US hangs on the edge of a precipice. Will it be a harbinger of peace with Russia? Or a deal too complex for even Trump to swing?
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: The World in 2025 - Part 2
15 takeaways from Part 2 of the two-part Masterclass series with former foreign secretary Shyam Saran
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: The World in 2025 - Part 1
17 takeaways on the new dynamics in geopolitics and geoeconomics, especially after Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, the shifting sands in the Middle East with conflict and informal fragile truce, and the big decadal shifts
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing #4 | The view from New Delhi: Choices and dilemmas
The defining challenges for India as it tries to balance demands from the US administration, and its own Asian backyard, which is increasingly coming under the dragon’s shadow
DN
Dinesh Narayanan
Independent journalist | Author of The RSS and The Making of The Deep Nation
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing #3 | The US-China tech rivalry: More than tech
Six industries to watch as the complicated relationship between the two countries in geopolitics extends to technology too
NR
N S Ramnath
Senior Editor | Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing #2: The risks from war still raise the spectre of uncertainty
The ghosts of the past will continue to haunt long into the future
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing #1 | US-China relationship: It’s complicated
Even as Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, the tensely awaited tariff orders were conspicuous by their absence
DN
Dinesh Narayanan
Independent journalist | Author of The RSS and The Making of The Deep Nation
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The Global Politics of AI
The big powers are escalating the AI race, but some scientists fear that the technology will spin out of human control
SW
Sundeep Waslekar
President | Strategic Foresight Group
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The global trends to watch in 2025
Insights from The Economist’s report ‘The World Ahead 2025’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: Geopolitics and Global Trade - How It Impacts India
What are the implications of the US-China rivalry for companies, global trade and India in particular? The Masterclass is a culmination of a weeklong curated learning experience
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing 3: The US - Europe - Russia - China - India dynamic
Security and economic realism determine much of today’s trade. The third and final in a three-part series to set context for the Masterclass on Geopolitics and Global Trade
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing 2: India and the Indo-Pacific
Geopolitics, geo-economics and India’s positioning in the region. The second in a three-part series to set context for the Masterclass on Geopolitics and Global Trade
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Briefing 1: How a fragmented world will impact trade & corporate strategy
The first in a three-part series to set context for the Masterclass on Geopolitics and Global Trade
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Fire in the ’hood
With Bangladesh wobbly, India is now surrounded by unstable states with restive populations and fidgety militaries
DN
Dinesh Narayanan
Independent journalist | Author of The RSS and The Making of The Deep Nation
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The shape of the world in the next five years
Fires of war are burning in several parts of the world. And the US-China hegemonic rivalry is now real. But even amidst the uncertainty there are clear signals about how geo-economics and geopolitics could shape up. Part 1 in this 3-part series dives into the paradoxes that will shape supply chains and geo-economics
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The multi-layered alliances shaping geopolitics
Two clear blocs are emerging, one led by the US, the other by China. However, it’s not another Cold War. Part 2 in a 3-part series on the shape of the world in the next 5 years
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The future of hegemony: Asymmetric cooperation
In a complexly layered world, neither the US nor China will be an absolute hegemon. The final in a 3-part series on the shape of the world in the next 5 years
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
A dangerous tit-for-tat game is afoot in the Middle East
The US, China and Russia are entangled in a complex way. And the rising tensions in the region are already disrupting shipping and the oil trade
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: The World in 2024
A stellar panel unpacks the primary drivers of complex change facing the world: The implications of elections in more than half the democratic world; the US-China rivalry and the economic disruptions of their mutual de-risking; assessing Global South as a tangible international entity; and more
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Is India too late to the Global South party?
China may have already stolen a march with its massive financing, infra investments and deals to access natural resources and stranglehold on markets across the developing world. Yet India may still have some aces up its sleeve. The sixth and final column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
PC
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
South Asia head | Eurasia Group
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Is Africa swapping out Europe for China?
The political economy calculus in Africa is changing. Any China-EU rivalry in Africa will only benefit the continent. The fifth column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Is the US in strategic retreat in the Indian Ocean region?
And does China have the capability to increasingly dominate this space? The fourth column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
KB
Kanti Prasad Bajpai
Visiting Professor, Ashoka University | Emeritus Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Does the current US-China detente signal a thawing of relations?
Neither of them wants an economic MAD (mutually assured destruction), and this is a tactical pause. This is the third column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
GR
G Venkat Raman
Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences | Indian Institute of Management, Indore
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Caught in existential dilemmas, how is Europe’s political thinking shaping up?
Europe is caught between the left and right, antisemitism and Islamophobia, accepting asylum seekers and pushing back boats. The time for a delicate balancing act may be over. This is the second column in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
SW
Sir Graham Watson
Distinguished Visiting Fellow | University of Toronto - Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Is the world increasingly becoming a dangerous place to live?
The existential threat to human civilization is not from wars, but from nuclear disaster and climate change. This is the first in our Year End Special series on making sense of the biggest economic and geopolitical shifts and what they signal
SW
Sundeep Waslekar
President | Strategic Foresight Group
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: Making Sense of the Hamas-Israel War
What does the war mean for the world? A discussion with Sundeep Waslekar
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The practice of Chinese foreign policy
Book Review: ‘After Tiananmen: The Rise of China’ by Vijay Gokhale
JJ
Jabin T. Jacob
Associate Professor, Department of International Relations and Governance Studies | Shiv Nadar University
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