In the News: War in Iran
By Piyush Verma
The conflict in West Asia was not South Asia's war. But South Asia — and particularly the smaller South Asian states such as Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan — are paying the price in fuel queues, kitchen economies, and fiscal wounds that will take years to heal.
By Anit Mukherjee
The current crisis in the Middle East has demonstrated that ensuring energy security will remain a challenge for policymakers in the foreseeable future, especially for countries like India. At the same time, the current disruption provides an opportunity to initiate and build on energy sector reforms to make sure that countries are better prepared to deal with such shocks in the future.
By Ammar Nainar
Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz resulting from the conflict between the United States and Israel, on the one hand, and Iran on the other, threaten to create another global energy crisis. India has many reasons to proactively take such action: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz risks exacerbating the country’s energy shortages and food insecurity.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
With ongoing strikes in the Middle East, the strategic intentions of Israel, the United States, Iran, and the Gulf Arab states are worth examining, for they will shape the intensity and scope of the war — as well as the long-term repercussions regardless of the outcome.
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About ORF America
The Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America) was established in 2020 as a non-partisan and nonprofit public policy institute in Washington DC. An affiliate of the Observer Research Foundation, India's leading public policy think tank, it produces research and analysis on security, economics, technology, and energy; convenes policy discussions in the United States and around the world; and develops networks of policy professionals.
The U.S.-India Partnership: Strengthening Cooperation
Special Report
Produced by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and ORF America
By Dhruva Jaishankar
For India, navigating U.S. export controls remains a challenge 20 years since the civilian nuclear agreement was signed.
This special report explores the opportunities of a U.S.-India Strategic Energy and Industrial Partnership.
Special Report
By Aditya Ramji
By Ashita Jain
The proposed India-U.S. trade deal discussions are distinct from traditional FTA negotiations, for they resemble a strategic economic partnership being negotiated under tariff pressure and in pursuit of an increasingly elusive sense of predictability for Indian exporters.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
What’s the latest on U.S.-India relations? Dhruva Jaishankar answers.
By Dhruva Jaishankar and Jeffrey D. Bean
Earlier this month, India was among the first countries to receive expanded access to Anthropic's Claude Mythos large language model, but the White House decision to block all foreign access to Anthropic’s new Mythos and Fable models via export control elevates concerns regarding reliability of U.S. partnership and AI dependency.
By Vishal Manve
India’s nuclear future is increasingly unfolding along two parallel tracks, one rooted in indigenous strategic capability and the other in internationally integrated commercial innovation. For Washington, understanding and engaging both will be central to the next phase of U.S.–India civil nuclear cooperation.
By Ammar Nainar
The Iran War has already had a severe impact on the United States’ arms and ammunition inventory. The new demands for arms and munitions come just as India has begun to improve its domestic weapons manufacturing and promote defense exports. In the coming years, this offers opportunities for India and the United States to cooperate in defense manufacturing at scale.
Explaining India: Understanding Public Policy
By Dhruva Jaishankar and Ammar Nainar
Once a quiet backstage function of the armed forces, defence diplomacy has emerged as one of India's sharpest tools of statecraft. From joint exercises and training missions to disaster relief and maritime surveillance, India's military now operates far beyond the battlefield: building trust, shaping partnerships, and projecting the country's strategic interests on a rapidly shifting global stage.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
In its diplomacy, India has reprioritized its near neighborhood, extending financial, developmental, and trading benefits to other South Asian countries and revitalizing more productive regional institutions.
By Andreas Kuehn and Trisha Ray
To examine the policies and their challenges, this chapter draws from in-depth, expert interviews with current and former government officials, trade associations, industry decision-makers, and technology experts, as well as a systematic document analysis of publicly available government and corporate documents.
U.S. Engagement with the World: Alliances, Trade, and Technology
By Dhruva Jaishankar
A strong transatlantic bond that for almost eight decades had evolved into a highly integrated defense and economic system among the world’s leading industrial economies – institutionalized under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and G7 – now faces new stresses.
By Linda Nhon and Andreas Kuehn
Trump 2.0’s overall policy directions in critical and emerging technologies will likely hew to common expectations. The details, however, of what technologies the new administration will prioritise and how actions, such as tariffs and export controls for example, will affect the United States’ (US) innovation and technology leadership remains underexplored.
By Jeffrey D. Bean
While the Pax Silica initiative has been criticized for being non-binding, unfocused, U.S.-centric, and inconsistent in its membership, it is nonetheless the best-placed plurilateral initiative to advance what has been a bipartisan consensus in the United States on U.S. technological leadership.
By Raul Alfaro-Pelico
When the African Union took its permanent member seat at the G20 in 2023, it was read across the continent as a long-overdue correction. Three years on, the question is narrower and harder. What does the seat actually buy?
By Sapna Suresh
It is not just on trade and market access that Washington and Brussels are competing for favor in India. Their competition extends to defense and security and to migration and mobility.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
Despite Europe’s push for more military self-sufficiency amid tensions with the United States, questions remain as to whether Europe’s political leadership, domestic politics, and social conditions can facilitate the development of true security and strategic autonomy.
By Holly Stevens and Siddharth Sharma
As demand for electric vehicles, battery storage, clean energy systems, and advanced technologies continues to accelerate, Australia’s resource base and mining history, Canada’s resource base as well as its mining and industrial capabilities, and India’s market scale and commitment to value-added manufacturing could support diversification across multiple stages of the value chain.
The Global South: Identifying a Common Agenda
"Rebalancing Globalization: Perspectives from the Global South" attempts to provide a framework for the next phase of globalization that is rebalanced and sustainable and can address issues that matter to the Global South.
Edited Volume
By Anit Mukherjee, Dhruva Jaishankar, Alan Gelb, Pamla Gopaul, Marta Bengoa, Shayak Sengupta, Aude Darnal, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Udaibir Das, Veronica Jijon, and Lorrayne Porciuncula
Editors: Anit Mukherjee and Dhruva Jaishankar
Multilateral Reform: Reinvigorating International Institutions
By Dhruva Jaishankar & Tanvi Madan
It’s Time for the Group to Prioritize Its Security Agenda
