Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of large language models (LLMs) has had its largest impact in software engineering. While programs that come out of it are generally rough around the edges and can be a lot more customized to individuals’ needs, the one big question so far has been how to make sure that […]
Posted inBRICS, Global South, International relations
BRICS and the Unfinished Politics of a Multipolar World
The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi has ended, but the political questions surrounding the organisation are far from settled. The summit took place at a moment when the architecture of the post-Cold War world is under visible strain. Wars have returned to the centre of international politics, economic sanctions have become instruments of strategic […]
Posted inOpinion
Who is afraid of getting rid of the monarchy?
The three Scandinavian countries continue to have their monarchs. Even though progressive people every now and then say that in theory they would be in favor of getting rid of the king, in practice there is no movement toward that. The main reason seems to be that everyone is afraid of what the alternative would […]
Posted inOpinion
Youth Protest and the Making of Democratic Politics in India
Every generation of Indians tends to believe that its young people are angrier, louder or more politically conscious than those who came before. History offers little support for that belief. Student and youth protest has accompanied the Republic almost from its inception. What has changed is not the existence of protest but its language, its […]
Posted inAnalysis, International relations, Opinion, Technology
The Reason Why AI Won’t Be Taking Your Coding Job
Introduction: The CEO Predictions For the past several years, the chief executives of the largest artificial intelligence companies have been telling the world that white-collar jobs are on the verge of extinction. In July 2025, Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted that “artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the […]
Posted inEconomy, energy, Global South, Middle East
Between Sanctions and Strategy: India and Iran in the Politics of Oil
The relationship between India and Iran is often framed through civilizational memory and historical continuity, yet its modern trajectory reveals a far more contingent and uneven reality. Since India’s independence in 1947, engagement between the two countries has been shaped less by sentiment and more by shifting geopolitical pressures, economic necessities, and the gradual centrality […]
Posted inAnalysis, Asia, Long Read
Domestic Strategy and International Opportunity: The Abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir
India-U.S. Relations and Kashmir Year U.S. Administration Key Event/Action U.S. Perception/Position on Kashmir 1947-48 Harry S. Truman First Indo-Pak War Supported UN resolution for plebiscite; viewed Kashmir as an international issue. 1950s Dwight D. Eisenhower Cold War Dynamics Preferred bilateral resolution but initially supported international mediation. 1962 John F. Kennedy Sino-Indian War Favored India with […]
Posted inAnalysis, Asia, Long Read
Domestic Strategy and International Opportunity: The Abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir
This study presents a historical and analytical examination of the domestic, bilateral, and international factors—particularly the role of the United States—that may have contributed to the change in the administrative status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, when Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was abrogated. The explanation centers on three interrelated factors: first, […]
Posted inBRICS, Economy, Global South
The Housing Divide in BRICS
Housing has emerged as one of the most revealing indicators of how economic growth, urban transformation, and inequality interact across the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—and the bloc’s newer members Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Together, these countries account for a significant share of the world’s population, construction […]
Posted inBRICS, energy, International relations, Technology
Electric Vehicles and the Struggle to Command the Future
China occupies a central and structurally dominant position in this landscape. By the mid-2020s, it accounted for around two thirds of global EV and new energy vehicle sales. Its domestic market for new energy vehicles—including battery electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and increasingly, two- and three-wheeled electric transport—exceeded ten million units annually, with some official counts […]