Europe’s hybrid-car bargain with Beijing bought time but not balance. The EU’s future as a geoeconomic actor now depends on two tasks. It must turn its single market into a credible bargaining tool. It must also shrink the chokepoints China holds over it. On 9 October 2026, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič left Beijing with…
In recent years, conflicts have increasingly stretched from the Russia-Ukraine theatre to South Asia and West Asia. These contemporary conflicts, particularly the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the West Asian theatre, have been serving as real-time test laboratories, where not only military technologies (both modern and outdated), but also prevailing assumptions and notions about warfare and strategy…
When wars widen, sanctions tighten and rival powers demand support, countries outside the traditional centres of power face a difficult question: how can they protect their interests without being pulled into someone else’s contest? BRICS is one forum through which a number of emerging economies are trying to answer that question. Its value lies less…
India’s policy on imported crude oil has made energy security inseparable from its foreign policy. With nearly 89% of its crude requirements met through imports, New Delhi must balance affordable supplies against the geopolitical risks of its energy relationships. That policy balancing has become more complicated following Washington’s October 2026 executive order establishing additional tariff…
India’s child-passenger rules rest on parents making the right choice, but protecting children requires a system designed around them. The story of ten month old Aalin Sherin Abraham in Kerala, whose parents donated her organs after she suffered fatal injuries following a road crash, raises an even more painful question, what are we doing to…
As American military protection recedes and Kurdish armed movements undergo profound changes in Syria and Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan faces mounting geopolitical, security and economic pressures. Can Erbil preserve its autonomy amid competing regional powers?
A film about the man who counted Punjab’s secret dead was itself made to disappear. What the removal of Satluj reveals about how democracies handle an unusable past. Rivers possess an inconvenient habit. They remember what civilizations insist on forgetting. They carry mountain silt for thousands of miles, preserving the geology of places they have…
Featured illustration: AI-generated for The Convention.
The global economy depends on shipping routes that often receive little attention until they are threatened. When a major route is disrupted, the effects are not confined to the sea. They can spread across countries, affecting fuel prices, transportation costs, trade and industrial activity. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the clearest examples of…
For three-quarters of a century, the study of international security was rooted in a foundational premise: war and peace are human endeavors. From the nuclear brinkmanship of the Cold War to the counterinsurgency doctrines of the post-9/11 era, Security Studies as a discipline prospered by deciphering human psychology, statecraft, institutional incentives, and strategic signaling. Scholars…