India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 175-188, June 2023.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a China-led plan that involves infrastructure and construction projects in more than 140 countries, out of which 65 countries account for 30% of the world’s gross domestic product, 35% of the world’s trade, 39% of the global land, 64% of the world’s population, 54% of the world’s CO2 emissions and 50% of the world’s energy consumption (Du & Zhang, 2018, China Economic Review, 47, 189–205). The project announced in 2013 is often considered Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s dream. It quickly grew in sectoral and geographical complexity from the Arctic to deep oceans, to Latin American countries, Africa and even collaborations in maritime and outer space. Nine years into the making, the project suffered disruption in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions and lockdowns led to suspension and slowdown in the project. However, the Chinese leadership continues to remain optimistic regarding the BRI and is opting for digital, health and sustainability models to keep the initiative running. The article analyses the strategic and economic significance of the BRI from its inception to now. It focuses on the impact of the pandemic on the BRI and stakeholders’ responses to the project, and looks into attempts by China to make it a success in the post-pandemic world.

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 264-267, June 2023.
Hikmet Karcˇic´, Torture, Humiliate, Kill: Inside the Bosnian Serb Camp System. Michigan Press, 2022, pp. 280, $85, ISBN: 9780472132966.

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 274-275, June 2023.
Sergey Marochkin and Yury Bezborodov (eds), The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Exploring New Horizons. Routledge, 2022, pp. x–xx, 1–236, ₹9169 (hardcover), ₹4061 (Kindle), ISBN: 9780367772802.

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 279-281, June 2023.
June Teufel Dreyer and Jacques deLisle (eds), Taiwan in the Era of Tsai Ing-wen: Changes and Challenges, Series: Routledge Research on Taiwan series. Routledge, 2021, pp. 334, ₹13581 (hardcover), ₹2793 (Kindle), ISBN: 9780367366865 (hardback), ISBN: 9780429356469 (e-book).

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 244-263, June 2023.
Recent developments in climate change-related negotiations indicate that there are emerging conflicts of interest between Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and emerging powers like India and China. Emerging powers have to address their developmental concerns while pursuing aspirations related to leadership in global governance. To take a leadership role in global governance structures relating to climate change, emerging powers need to pursue their interests while accommodating the concerns of their potential followers, which include SIDS. Increased conflict of interests between emerging powers and other sets of vulnerable countries could lead to adverse implications for the North–South divide in international environmental relations, which in turn will impact their leadership aspirations. Using the example of leadership in international relations and the statements made by the SIDS at COP26, this article concludes that the existing situation presents a challenge as well as an opportunity for emerging powers like India to take a leadership role in a reformed new world order.

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 282-282, June 2023.

India Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue 2, Page 157-174, June 2023.
Humanitarian action is commonly thought to involve two types of aid providers: international and local actors. But this tends to ignore a third humanitarian domain, namely transnational humanitarianism during conflicts, global epidemics and natural disasters by diaspora individuals and organisations. These transnational connections, which involve the mobility of people, goods and money, significantly change the context in which global humanitarian actors function and may have notable secondary effects on other aid providers. We contend that the significance of diaspora humanitarianism during natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic has still not been thoroughly explored in the academic literature and remains relatively ‘invisible’ in aid practices and policies. This article arises from an empirical study on the significance of diaspora in humanitarian action by analysing the impact of diaspora remittances and organisations that have emerged as an important potential for diasporas during humanitarian action. To examine the potential and role of the diaspora in humanitarian action, this article makes the case for the Indian diaspora’s humanitarian potential and efforts, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

India Quarterly, Ahead of Print.