This brief explores how the PLA’s senior cadre training programme marks a shift from anti-corruption purges to cadre reconstitution, with political loyalty central to leadership selection amid continued institutional and operational challenges: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-pla-deepens-china-s-political-rectification-campaign

ORF is hosting a panel discussion on 'Russia-Iran Nexus In An Era Of War' with Ajay Bisariya, Deepika Sarawat , Adlan Margoev, Muddassir Quamar & Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti.

The tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have seemingly presented a window of opportunity for the #Russian economy, with soaring oil prices and the #US waiver on Russian #oil imports. Having engaged closely with #Tehran in recent years – including signing a #military cooperation agreement in January 2025 – Moscow naturally sympathises with the Iranian position, providing diplomatic, humanitarian and limited #military support.

Join us on 27 April from 3:30 PM at ORF Delhi.

Register now 👉 or-f.org/38403

This brief explores how the PLA’s senior cadre training programme marks a shift from anti-corruption purges to cadre reconstitution, with political loyalty central to leadership selection amid continued institutional and operational challenges: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-pla-deepens-china-s-political-rectification-campaign

The Global South is struggling with wars, energy shocks, and weak bargaining power, so building practical, trust-based partnerships is key to survival and growth.

Read how the Iran conflict has placed under the scanner the actual veracity of the Global South to collectively bargain and negotiate with the traditional Western powers to realise shared targets: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/iran-war-global-south-partnerships-in-dire-straits

For Pakistan to imagine that with its weak economy, unstable polity, uncertain security environment, border tensions with India and Afghanistan, lack of bankable investment opportunities, absence of skilled manpower, it will emerge as the sword arm of the region is quite a leap of faith, one that could come crashing down when the propaganda blitz, and the glitz of hosting peace talks, fades away. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-middle-east-muddle-pakistan-s-premature-vainglory

As global trade tensions and energy disruptions strain supply chains and raise costs, read how India must move beyond short-term relief to build resilient, agile, and financially robust MSMEs that can anchor its next phase of growth: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/strengthening-msme-resilience-in-an-era-of-geoeconomic-turbulence

Read this brief to know how Moscow and Beijing are reshaping the strategic calculus over Taiwan, through combining capability transfers, joint exercises, and wartime lessons: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/winning-without-fighting-how-russia-is-shaping-china-s-taiwan-playbook

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan signals a shift toward a techno-security model—embedding technological self-reliance and supply chain resilience within a more stable, innovation-led growth strategy amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.

Read to know how China is consolidating a development paradigm: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/from-growth-to-security-china-s-techno-statist-turn-with-15th-five-year-plan

Maritime insurance is critical to trade flows. The Hormuz crisis demonstrates that trade disruptions can arise as much from financial and insurance systems as military action.

Read to know how India must treat maritime insurance as a strategic instrument and build institutional, sovereign-backed capacity to prevent external risk pricing from disrupting its economy: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-maritime-insurance-chokepoint-securing-india-s-sea-borne-trade

Pop culture does not reflect modern geopolitical reality; it provides the psychological antidote to it. As India crosses the US$4-5 trillion threshold, its first globally scaled AAA game could become the cultural bridge that reframes how the world experiences Indian civilisation.

Read more here: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-next-global-epic-why-aaa-gaming-is-india-s-kung-fu-panda-moment

Read to know how the current crisis in West Asia is likely to accelerate a sense of urgency around defence autonomy, indigenisation, and the multialignment of defence technologies: https://www.orfonline.org/research/how-air-power-will-reshape-geopolitics-in-the-gulf

An emphasis on capability building reflects a recognition of the strategic importance of self sufficiency. Self-reliance is not an event but a process, requiring alignment between policy, industry and vision.

Read to know more as global uncertainties deepen, India’s choices will carry greater consequences: https://www.orfonline.org/research/india-s-defence-ambitions-could-prove-transformative

The sudden positive turn in US-Pakistan ties has alarmed Beijing, where questions are being raised about the future of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and China’s so-called ‘iron friendship’ with Pakistan. This paper analyses the ongoing debates in China’s policy and strategic circles. It finds an emerging unease over the dramatic reset in US-Pakistan ties under Trump 2.0 which, in turn, is forcing China to quietly adjust its pace of cooperation with Pakistan. For China, the lesson being learnt is the impermanence of friends, and for Pakistan, China’s word of caution is that in its bid to reap benefits from the two competing superpowers—the US and China—it could end up losing the trust of both.

Read now: https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-future-of-china-and-pakistan-s-iron-friendship

Discovering the “Mantra” for Peace in the Middle East

Watch Samir Saran unpack the layered conflict in the #WestAsia, exploring how to achieve long-term peace in the region: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UNEEZL_E5cA

India has demonstrated a willingness to employ force in a calibrated and purposeful manner, enhancing deterrence while preserving flexibility. Operation Sindoor, therefore, stands as a marker of India’s strategic coming of age. The challenge ahead will be to sustain this balance, ensuring that assertiveness is guided by prudence.

Read more: https://www.orfonline.org/research/operation-sindoor-a-turning-point-shadowed-by-us-ties

This brief explores how the the document underscores a fundamental reality of the contemporary international system: cybersecurity is not merely a technical challenge but a profound strategic dilemma. The US may possess unmatched resources and capabilities, yet the persistence of cyber threats, the resilience of adversaries, and the fragility of digital systems demonstrate that cybersecurity remains an enduring challenge even for the world’s most powerful country: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/the-iran-factor-in-trump-s-cyber-strategy

This brief explores how Kashmir’s conflict has shifted from visible militancy to hidden networks—digital propaganda, facilitators, and community actors sustaining insurgency. India must counter with precision, trust, and ecosystem-wide strategies. India needs to adopt an all-encompassing ecosystem-based strategy that tackles the digital, social, and ideological aspects of conflict rather than a purely kinetic, security-centric approach.

Read more: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/insurgency-to-ecosystem-warfare-stakeholder-diversification-in-jammu-and-kashmir

This brief emphasises that educational mobility increasingly becomes multi-location and modular, India’s policy response must move from managing outflows to designing pathways that strengthen domestic capacity while preserving global access: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/hybrid-and-transnational-education-india-s-next-phase-of-educational-mobility