Throughout the recorded history, it is evident that India and Eurasia have fostered a strong and enduring economic and commercial relationship. Nevertheless, it is imperative to acknowledge that these economic interconnections and exchanges had experienced a gradual weakening over the period of time.
It is seen that, after having a successful experience from its Look East Policy, India has now started think ways to develop its relations with the energy rich region of Central Asia which would give boost to its foreign policy on various aspects. Irrespective of the difficulties like the presence of great powers in the region, limited trade and limited size of markets, Central Asia has gained valuable place in the foreign policy of India for more than a decade. The ‘Connect Central Asia Policy’ is a concrete indication of this growing interest, which is based on pro-active political economic and people to people connectivity with the region both individually and collectively. The growing role of major powers in the region for making their influence is another side of the Central Asian coin. It is in such a context, the present research is attempting to explore how far geo-political calculation is a factor in India's new policy ‘Connect Central Asia’ and its implications for India. Side by side, it also tries to explore the evolving relations with the region having common interests on many issues in South and Central Asia regions from geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-strategic perspectives.
The role of higher education in the foreign policy of states has been increasing significantly in order to generate soft power. Nevertheless, the literature on the educational aspect of soft power has yet to be systematically reviewed. Therefore, this systematic review is conducted to delineate and analyze the major studies in the field of international higher education which indicates education as a soft power resource for a country. To identify the multiple and contrary arguments on the topic, this study reviewed 48 peer-reviewed articles published from 2001 to 2022. The data collected from the reviewed papers are organized into five sub-sections outlined in the results sections. The contradictions in the literature are examined within the sub-sections in order to understand the various perspectives on education as a resource of soft power. Through analyzing the data mentioned in the results section, this study provides a framework of the essential conditions to harness education as a soft power resource. Furthermore, this review also suggests prospects for future research in this area.
The SCO is one of the biggest geopolitical groupings in the world. It has provided a forum for its members, particularly, Russia and China, to cooperate on the set goals of the Eurasian re-integration. In contrast, SAARC cannot be termed as a successful organization, given the arch–rivalries between India and Pakistan. However, optimists believe that the geopolitical expansion, having India and Pakistan on board, the SCO would have the potential for economic and strategic cooperation. On the other hand, the evolving Sino-Pak axis vis-à-vis India has generated a view that China has offered an SCO platform to make its South Asia Policy a reality. Hence, an attempt has been made to assess the evolving speculations; will the geopolitical expansion of SCO unfold new opportunities or merely make SCO as another SAARC?
The ongoing pandemic COVID-19 has made it very clear that no one is safe until everyone is safe. But how can everyone be safe when the pandemic has broken every nerve of the economy and put an extra burden on the already crippled healthcare systems in low-income countries? Thus, the pandemic has changed the orientation of domestic as well as global politics, with many geopolitical shifts. The exponential growing infected cases and more than four million deaths has demanded a global response in terms of multilateralism. However, declining multilateralism and the need for its reforms was a much-delayed response. Given this context, this paper aimed to link the decline of multilateralism in the face of the pandemic by highlighting various instances of its failure and success; and highlighting the need for its revival. The article critically examines and evaluates the responses of multilateralism and global health diplomacy (GHD) during the pandemic. The ongoing black swan kind of event (an unexpected event) has obligated global leadership to think in terms of the revival of multilateralism through GHD. Historically, multilateralism through GHD has been shown to play an important role in managing and combating pandemics. The article further discusses various theoretical aspects such as sovereignty and hegemonic stability theory as reasons for the failing of multilateralism. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of foresight in reviving multilateralism in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.
In recent years, trade and environment issues have become increasingly entwined, especially in the face of the fast pace of globalization and the integration of the world on account of trade in goods, services, and capital and the movement of people and information. This increase in trade is of critical importance to the developing countries.1 It offers them increasing market access opportunities, access to new technologies and ideas, and an improved allocation of resources according to the principle of comparative advantage. However, it is important that these gains in trade are integrated with the objectives of environmental protection, sustainable resource management, and poverty alleviation to achieve sustainable development, both at the local and global levels. Sustainable development, meaning ‘meeting the present needs without compromising those of the future’ (WCED 1987), involves important inter-generational equity considerations, including those related to the environment. Environment is of importance not only because of its effects on the psychic and non-economic welfare, but also because of its impact on production over the long term (World Bank 2000). Most developing countries have a comparative advantage in the export of resource-intensive goods, which cause a high strain on the environment, and an increase in the export of these goods could lead to conflict between trade enhancement and environment conservation. The poor in these countries, who rely more heavily on environmental resources to meet their subsistence needs and in times of distress are faced with inadequate means of livelihood, tend to over-exploit the natural base. Hence, there is an intimate link between gains from trade, Trade and environment in the World Trade Organization: a sustainable development perspective*
Public health, conflict/war, Social Determinants of Health (SDHs) and Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) are believed to be strongly interwoven. Afghanistan that is known as the ‘Graveyard of the Empire’ has been passing through a very critical phase given the prolonged civil war during the last couple of decades, wherein the ongoing current situation further pushed the country towards the collapse of the political and economic systems. Thereby, Afghanistan’s healthcare system has been entrapped into the civil war conundrum causing the SDHs to be seriously affected. Conflict in any form, i.e. local, regional, or international, has left black swan impacts on not only the SDHs but also led to health crises given the inaccessibility, unaffordability, and more of lack of the infrastructure, and exodus of trained medical staff and healthcare inequity. In this situation, it is anticipated that GHD could play a significant role in providing equitable healthcare to people at stake. Against this backdrop, the focus of this paper is; how the SDHs have been impacted by the civil conflict and how the public healthcare has been turned into a conundrum; would the GHD resolve the healthcare crisis in the prevailing scenario?
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