Comments

India-Pakistan
Pakistan’s Ideological Lens: Why Anti-India Narratives Persist


Imran Khurshid

Pakistan’s anti-India narrative is not about concern for minorities but about preserving an ideology that defines India as a permanent civilizational enemy.

Bangladesh
Bangladesh's Retributive Justice Imperils Its Democratic Future


Mudassir Bhat

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal sentenced exiled ex-PM Sheikh Hasina to death in absentia for 2024 protest crackdowns, in a politically charged trial criticised as unfair retribution. This comment argues that such a verdict risk eroding democracy, drawing parallels with Pakistan while urging institutional restraint for genuine renewal.

Bangladesh
The ICT Verdict and Bangladesh’s Shifting Political Currents: Disadvantage India?


Mohammed Shoaib Raza

The commentary examines Bangladesh’s shifting politics after the ICT sentenced Sheikh Hasina to death for the 2024 crackdown. It highlights uncertainty surrounding the upcoming elections, Jamaat-e-Islami’s push for a referendum, BNP’s resurgence, and rising violence.

Pak Law
Field Marshal’s Pakistan: Institutionalized Authoritarianism Under the 27th Amendment


Imran Khurshid

Pakistan’s 27th Constitutional Amendment formalizes military dominance by creating a powerful Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) with unified control over all armed services and lifetime immunity from prosecution.

Issue Briefs

GCC
Structural Constraints and Strategic Inertia: Rethinking Gulf Security After Israel’s Doha Attack


Mohmad Waseem Malla

This Issue Brief analyses the structural limitations of the Gulf security framework in light of Israel’s unprecedented attack in Doha on 9 September, targeting Palestinian Hamas leadership. While the attack marked a dangerous escalation of Tel Aviv’s regional adventurism, it also exposed the enduring structural weaknesses of the Gulf’s security architecture which has been defined by entrenched dependency on the United States.

Pak-Saudi
Beyond Symbolism: Can Pakistan Become West Asia’s Net Security Stabiliser?


Mohmad Waseem Malla

This issue brief explores whether Pakistan can evolve from a traditional “security contractor” into West Asia’s net security stabiliser. The September 17, 2025, Saudi-Pakistan Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement marks a pivotal moment, formalising decades of military cooperation between the two countries. Historically, Pakistan has trained Gulf forces, guarded monarchies, and provided military personnel, often in transactional arrangements....

NCP
From Protest to Power: Can JNP reshape Bangladesh’s Political Future?


Mohmad Waseem Malla, Faiza Rizwan

The Jatiya Nagorik Party (JNP)— born out of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) movement, that steered the July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh— is seeking to break the decades-long dominance of the Awami League and BNP, and advocating for a Second Republic through constitutional reform and centrist, pluralist governance. As it navigates entrenched power structures and competing opposition forces, it faces both great promise and uncertain challenges in its quest to reshape the nation’s political future.

Books/Journals

Journal of Peace Studies
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Current Issue: Volume 32, Issues 3, July-September 2025

Previous Issues

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The article analyses the contrasting diplomatic approaches of India and Pakistan towards the Trump administration, arguing that India’s principled and strategic restraint enhances its long-term credibility, while Pakistan’s transactional engagement reflects limited strategic agency. The piece situates this debate within broader India–US–Pakistan dynamics and Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

Dr Imran Khurshid's Article on "India-US relations under strain: What went wrong from ‘Namaste Trump’ to strategic turbulence" published in BLiTZ on 13 August 2025.

Despite unprecedented outreach by Prime Minister Modi, India–US ties are under strain—not due to New Delhi’s actions, but because of Donald Trump’s erratic diplomacy and strategic disregard.

Dr Imran Khurshid's Article on From Galwan to the Brahmaputra: China’s Expanding Strategy of Coercion in Bitter Winter Magazine on 14 August 2025. China’s Brahmaputra mega-dam endangers India’s water security, ecology, and strategic stability, extending aggression from borders to rivers.

Dr Imran Khurshid's Article on India, the Quad, and China’s Shadow: Building a Coherent Indo-Pacific Strategy published in The Diplomat.

The Quad must evolve from rhetoric to action with a unified strategy that fully integrates India and counters China’s multifront challenge across trade, tech, and security.

Mr Harsh Pandey's Article on How Do Cyprus and Croatia Fit Into India’s Europe Strategy? published in The Diplomat, Dated June 27, 2025.

Dr. Imran Khurshid's Article on published in Eurasian Times on dated June 20, 2025.

A new trilateral axis is quietly taking shape on India’s doorstep, challenging existing strategic equations. Its cooperative veneer belies deeper ambitions that may disrupt South Asia’s fragile stability.

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ICPS Board Members had a meeting with Dr Yousuf Bulushi, Chairman, Muscat Policy Council today. They discussed the evolving regional geopolitics, the nature of emerging global order and its implications for southern and western Asian regions and the state of India-Oman relations. The importance of exchange of views at the Track II level was discussed too with both sides agreeing to inter-institutional collaboration in future.
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Syed Eesar Mehdi's Article Published in Centre for Kashmir Analysis and Research (C-KAR) titled "Pakistan’s Social Media Disinformation Blitz: Orchestrated Propaganda Seeks to Twist Kashmir Narrative Amid Pahalgam Tragedy" on April 27, 2025.

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The International Centre for Peace Studies (ICPS), New Delhi, proudly partnered with the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (NMCPCR), Jamia Millia Islamia, for a one-day Graduate Conference titled “World Order in Disarray: Perspectives on Shifting Geopolitics”, held on April 25, 2025.

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There was a time when Kashmir was a headline. A buzzword. A flashpoint used by talking heads and politicians far from the valley’s windswept apple orchards and snow-laced hills. It was spoken of in boardrooms, in war rooms, and in drawing rooms—anywhere but where the real people lived, where the real damage was done. But something has begun to shift, quietly but profoundly. And perhaps for the first time in decades, Kashmir is not being defined by those who seek to fragment it, but by those who have lived, endured, and are now choosing to rebuild it.

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When the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in February 2022, much of the West viewed global responses through a binary lens, as usual—us versus them—defining countries as either supporters of Ukraine or allies of Russia. Western nations, particularly the United States and its European allies, presented this struggle in moralistic terms: democracy vs autocracy, good versus evil, the free world versus an expansionist dictatorships.

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India and Bangladesh share a deep-rooted historical, civilizational, and geographical connection. As neighbours in South Asia, their relationship has been characterized by cooperation and mutual respect but has also faced occasional challenges due to differing perceptions, internal politics, historical reasons, and relative power dynamics.