River Diplomacy

Understanding Water Diplomacy

Water diplomacy recognizes that water is essential for life, economic development, and environmental sustainability, and that its equitable and sustainable management is crucial for social stability and peace. By fostering dialogue, building trust, and promoting joint problem-solving, water diplomacy seeks to find inclusive and sustainable solutions to water-related issues, ensuring that the needs of all stakeholders are considered and conflicts are minimized.

Geopolitical Realities of Resource Rich Africa (Part Two)

One of the salient aspects of the African geopolitics, as discussed in the earlier post, is the covetousness of African natural resources. Both the global powers and the emerging powers are interested in getting access to these African riches (environment resource), which in turn determines the nature of political relations between the countries and individual African States. However, natural resource richness can also lead to disparities within states threatening to hamper any kind of cooperation. As such, there are two factors influencing this fragmentation: Natural distribution of resources, making some countries more affluent than others. For instance, Africa is well […]

Geopolitical Realities of Resource Rich Africa (Part One)

Natural topography shares a complex relationship with the economy, polity and society of a country. Representing the geographical aspect— which includes physical landscape (mountains, waterbodies etc.), human elements and natural resources— it plays a critical role in shaping the international relations of States. This is reflected specially in case of Africa which is well endowed with natural resources, and has significant reserves of minerals and raw materials in comparison to the world; sometimes of minerals unique only to the continent, such as coltan. This has enabled the African nations to build strategic foreign relations and form geopolitical equations with countries […]

Energy & Climate Policy Trends

We are witnessing a dynamic change in the energy sector and the geopolitics around it. With fast stride towards the decarbonizing the economies, to developments such as lowered cost of solar power, electric vehicle era and secured fossil fuel supply— all together are changing demand-supply and production-consumption patterns of energy. Even then, approximately 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity and to clean cooking fuel. While at one end we are preparing for a world of autonomous vehicles, on the other end we are still battling the energy poverty with people lacking basic amenities. Notably, the Agenda 2030 focuses on […]

Africa: Playground for Asian Powers

Importance of Africa has increased manifold in the current geopolitical climate. In particular, the three Asian economies China, Japan and India have adopted a more muscular approach, as the resource rich continent features high on their global agenda. Given the three countries are in competition for influence, both within Asia and beyond, they are keenly investing in Africa’s infrastructure, energy and development sectors, seeking growth as strategic partners and markets. The Asian alignment for Africa comes at a time when the US has adopted a more isolationist approach and the African economies are bearing the brunt of commodity price fluctuations, […]

Tibetan Plateau: Ecological Anchor of Asia

The importance of Tibet to the world’s geopolitical events is much understated. Often relegated to as the China issue, it holds enormous geopolitical and environmental significance, especially in context of Asia. As a geographical region, Tibet is a rich bed of minerals, water bodies and energy resources. It has often been referred to as the ‘Water Tower of Asia’ given that there are 10 river systems originating here, and is also considered the maker of Asian Monsoons. Chinese geologists have discovered more than 130 minerals like uranium, boron, lithium, iron etc. in Tibet. No wonder then China’s Great Leap Forward […]

Public Health Policy and Climate Change

Health, since eons of centuries has been subject to environmental events and influence. In the current scenario too, the fluctuating climate patterns world over are marked by heat waves, thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, floods, rise in sea level, glacier melting, extended droughts, more intense storms like cyclones, hurricanes etc. all are capable of posing as a challenge to the health policy of nations and individuals. While climate change has been recognized as a global threat, it is important to realize the health risks it poses; and equally important for the governments of the world is also to prepare themselves for the […]

Renewables and the Power Dynamics

The past few years in the world history have been marred with geopolitical volatility. A prominent risk to the geopolitical landscape is energy crisis (including the renewables landscape). It is a proven fact that every international regime, old or modern, is based on an energy resource. While coal and steam backed the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, petroleum and natural gas served as the backdrop for American hegemony from the late 19th to early 21st centuries. With sustainable development and climate change having gained momentum in the last few years, the present times will certainly be looked […]

Oil Market in Climate Change Discourse

The Oil-Price Shocks of 1970s and 80s catalyzed the modern energy policy world over. This time yet again, with environmental concerns gaining prominence and change in geopolitical landscape, global energy space is experiencing a watershed moment. Earlier, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change set a comprehensive, long-tenure objective to control greenhouse-gas emissions and the anthropogenic climate change; and with old players giving strong competition post their comeback in the market- the sector has been subject to tough, if not tumultuous, fluctuations. Additionally, for long, environmentalists had hoped a reversal in natural resource extraction activities, by switching to renewables- but […]