South Asia
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Features
Indo-Pacific Strategy Update
FORUM Staff The United States has made significant progress in implementing its dynamic strategy to modernize long-standing alliances, strengthen existing and emerging partnerships, and forge innovative networks to address pressing security challenges. The region’s evolving and increasingly complex threats range from growing aggression by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to nuclear proliferation to potential climate impacts, especially for Nations…
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Features
PRC Weaponizes Water
Brahma Chellaney Water is the most precious of natural resources. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) dominates Asia’s water because of its control over the Tibetan plateau, which served as a buffer with India until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao Zedong annexed it in the early 1950s. Since mid-2022, Beijing has raised security concerns by increasing efforts to…
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Features
Demographic Shifts
Dr. Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba | Photos by Reuters Continued population growth in India and depopulation in China mean that India has assumed the title as the world’s most populous country. From population size alone, not much can be inferred about India’s future, but a deeper dive into its demographic dynamics shows that the country’s leaders need to move quickly to…
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Features
The Indo-Pacific Strategic Space and the Global Order
Dr. Arnab Das/Cmdr. (Ret.) Indian Navy The center of global power has shifted toward the Indian and Pacific oceans. The Indo-Pacific strategic space is recognized as the main theater of geopolitical and geostrategic interactions in the 21st century. More nations globally are deploying assets in the region to ensure their strategic presence and interests. India, the People’s Republic of China…
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Climate
Renewable Forces
On the evening of November 21, 1918 — 10 days after the signing of the armistice that ended World War I — British War Cabinet member George Curzon presided at a dinner honoring the Inter-Allied Petroleum Conference. Toasting the delegates gathered in London, Curzon declared that the Allies had “floated to victory on a wave of oil” due to their…
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Departments
India developing unmanned combat air vehicles
FORUM Staff India is developing an autonomous, jet-powered stealth unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) that could be ready to field by 2025. Researchers at India’s Aeronautical Development Establishment, part of the defense ministry’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), demonstrated a scaled-down prototype, pictured, in July 2022 for the Indian Air Force at a test range in southern India, according…
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Across The Region
Indo-Pacific Countries Launch Major Trade Talks
Economic ministers from more than a dozen Indo-Pacific countries launched negotiations in September 2022 on the United States’ first major regional trade engagement effort in nearly a decade. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks in Los Angeles, California, were aimed at addressing future challenges and achieving “sustainable and equitable growth” in the region. U.S. President…
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Across The Region
Indian Navy Commissions Biggest Aircraft Carrier in Domestic Defense Push
India commissioned its first domestically manufactured aircraft carrier in September 2022, underlining New Delhi’s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders. After 17 years of construction and tests, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant, pictured — the Navy’s second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India…
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Partnerships
Women build on legacy of defense, security, peacekeeping contributions
FORUM Staff Indian engineer Rajeshwari Chatterjee helped found her nation’s first microwave research lab in 1953. Her contributions to radar and antenna technology have defense applications more than 50 years later. Chemist Stephanie Kwolek, working for industrial chemistry giant DuPont in 1965, made a discovery that led to Kevlar, a fiber still used in body armor as well as to…
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Departments
Eyes Right
Sri Lankan Army Soldiers march during Independence Day celebrations in Colombo in February 2022.
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