·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
#Global Trade
80 results
·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
·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
·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
·Development & State Capacity
Rivers, Bronzes and the Architecture of Ambition
What the Chola trail reveals about power, systems, memory, and coffee
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
A World Without Endgames
What prolonged global conflicts mean for Europe, China—and India’s narrowing strategic space.
·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.
·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.
·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
·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
·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
·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
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
The $100K H-1B Shock & India’s Innovation Moment
The visa fee has sent shockwaves through the global talent ecosystem. What does this mean for U.S. startups, Indian engineers, and the future of innovation?
·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
·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?
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The global trends to watch in 2025
Insights from The Economist’s report ‘The World Ahead 2025’
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·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
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The practice of Chinese foreign policy
Book Review: ‘After Tiananmen: The Rise of China’ by Vijay Gokhale
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Masterclass: The World in 2023
A top-class panel of experts decodes the world of opportunity and risk on multiple fronts
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The World in 2022: Events that shaped our world
Eight experts from various fields list the defining events of the year and their impact
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The best stories of 2022
December 24, 2022: On the US-China rivalry, Russia-Ukraine war, concerns about climate change, but also hope, India and China, contrarian leaders, and more
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
US-China Tech war: The US is weaponizing its global influence
What the US CHIPS and Science Act means for China, the world and India. A podcast with Prof G Venkat Raman
·Development & State Capacity
FF Insights #692: The roots of Sri Lanka’s plight
July 12, 2022: Police reforms—step by step; Mastery experiences; Eyes can hear
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
FF Insights #687: What’s on America’s mind?
July 5, 2022: Astrologers and lawyers; Peter Brook’s way; Ancient wisdom
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
FF Insights #665: The world is not flat
June 3, 2022: Leadership in the hybrid world; Modi’s new trade playbook; Superhero mosquito killer
·Development & State Capacity
FF Insights #650: Creativity is a dialogue
May 13, 2022: The road to India@100; The consequences of sanctions against Russia; Fair pay
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
FF Insights #647: The challenges for distributed trust
May 10, 2022: Recession risks; How protectionism can lead to higher prices; Literally speaking
·Climate & Environmental Sustainability
FF Insights #627: A chance to be something specific
April 8, 2022: The fungi cleaning Delhi’s air; Most BRICs fall; How time flies
·Climate & Environmental Sustainability
FF Insights #611: An eye on renewable energy
March 16, 2022: A love letter; The colour of money; Management education
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
FF Insights #609: Explaining electoral victories
March 14, 2022: The fertiliser crisis; The Godfather is 50; An optical primer
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
FF Insights #608: The Munger Way
March 11, 2022: Principles vs. power; An astonishing con job; Inflation
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Making Sense of the Russia-Ukraine war: What it means for the world
What might be the fallouts—economic, social, humanitarian, geopolitical? Sundeep Waslekar and Vivek Kelkar discuss