South Asia

India’s Northeastern Borderlands at Risk

Between discontented citizens and disputed borders, India’s northeast has long posed challenges for the government in New Delhi. The area is cut off from...

Graphic Essay: Emerging Technologies

From the wheel to the internal combustion engine, new technologies have, for better or worse, fundamentally transformed our society. The emerging technologies listed have...

For the Quad, Economics Is Security

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a loose affiliation comprising the United States, Australia, Japan and India and known more commonly as the Quad, plays an...

Southwest Asia’s Shatter Belt

A strategic vacuum is expanding where Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet. All three states are devolving, each in its own way and at its...

On Ukraine, India Stands Firm With Neutrality

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv on Friday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a calculated diplomatic move designed to underscore...

The Deep Malaise Afflicting Pakistan’s Security Establishment

After decades of dominating the state, Pakistan’s national security establishment has succumbed to the sort of political strife that has wracked the country throughout...

The New Arc of Crisis in Southern Eurasia

Strategic analysis usually entails an in-depth examination of a specific area or issue, but sometimes it is necessary to zoom out and take a...

Graphic Essay: The Fight Against Global Hunger

Last year, approximately 30 percent of the world’s population experienced moderate to severe food insecurity. This means some 2.3 billion people “compromised on the...

India Moves in on Southeast Asia

Last week, the foreign ministers of India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in Vientiane to discuss ways to enhance political, security...

Graphic Essay: Global Chokepoints in Maritime Trade

Editor’s note: The following is the first of what we hope will be many Monthly Graphics, a visual-rich, subscriber-only essay that complements our long-form...

Daily Memo: Hezbollah Considers Its Options

Plan for Hezbollah. A senior officer from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps met in Baghdad with leaders of pro-Iranian factions in Iraq to discuss...

China’s Pakistan Problem

While ordinarily strong, Sino-Pakistani relations have been strained lately, at least in part by the political and economic meltdown in Islamabad. The tension was...

India’s Watershed Election

India’s 2024 general elections have shaken the trajectory the planet’s most populous nation has been on for nearly three decades. Right-wing Hindu nationalism, which...

Pakistan’s Western Frontier in Growing Peril

Over the past two decades, Pakistan has gradually shifted its strategic focus from its eastern frontier with India, its historical rival, toward the two...

Pakistan’s Growing Civil-Military Pandemonium

They say there’s a first time for everything, and for Pakistan that was Feb. 8, when the military establishment failed to get what it...

The World in 2024

Editor's note: Below are the compiled links to our entire 2024 annual forecast. Please follow the links for quick navigation, or download the PDF...

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The heartland of South Asia is the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a large and fertile region based around the Indus and Ganges river systems, as well as the Bramaputra in Bangladesh and eastern India.

The center of gravity of South Asia is the balance of power between Pakistan and India. Historically, India has struggled to assert itself within the subcontinent because of its complex internal divisions.

The future of Afghanistan matters to the degree it could weaken Pakistan, thereby tipping the balance of power in India’s favor.

There is an intense rivalry between China and India, but the geography of the region, including the existence of buffer states such as Nepal and Bhutan, typically prevents them from coming to blows.

Read Regional Assessment

The Future of India...

India will work to improve ties with Central Asia and strengthen alliances with secondary powers like Japan and Australia.

South Asia in our Memos

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Latest Posts

Daily Memo: More Signs of Trouble for Russia’s Economy

Weak performance. Russia’s services purchasing managers’ index fell to 50.5 points in September from 52.3 in August. Though not quite in contraction territory, it...

Iran’s Regional Position Is Crumbling

A day after Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at targets across the country, Israeli officials on Oct. 2 announced plans for major retaliation,...

Graphic Essay: Developing Southern Mexico

One of Mexico’s defining challenges as a country is the stark economic divide between its northern and southern regions. This disparity makes it extremely...

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