Publications

At SCO, Pakistan Promotes Relevance as China Projects Influence

USIP

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Despite clear security threats and political instability, hosting the SCO provided Pakistan a chance to boost its diplomatic standing.
India’s participation shows potential for improved India-Pakistan ties.
For China, the summit incrementally advances alternatives to the Western-led world order.

October 2024

Modi Walks a Diplomatic Tightrope in Ukraine

USIP

KEY TAKEAWAYS

India’s diplomatic posture, geopolitical aims and domestic politics explain what Modi was looking to achieve.
For Ukraine, the visit advanced its outreach to the global community and multilateral peace efforts.
Ukraine will continue to court India, hoping it can serve as a neutral arbiter.

August 2024

China, Russia See SCO at Counterweight to NATO but India Is Ambivalent

USIP

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Both Russia and China see the SCO as a key diplomatic platform to construct an alternative to the U.S.-led international order.
India is uneasy about the SCO’s anti-Western posture.
The SCO’s expansion has led to friction among member states.

July 2024

After India’s Surprising Elections, What’s Next for Modi’s Foreign Policy?

USIP

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Foreign policy is unlikely to be a priority issue for the new parliament.
But a return to normal parliamentary order could complicate Modi’s more ambitious foreign policy projects.
For the U.S., signs of India’s democratic vitality will elicit a bipartisan sigh of relief, if only temporarily.

June 2024

India Elections: Foreign Policy Rhetoric Mixes Bluster and Real Differences

USIP

USIP’s Tamanna Salikuddin, Daniel Markey and Sameer Lalwani identify and analyze some of the most noteworthy policy statements related to Pakistan and China with an eye to understanding the policy differences between the ruling BJP and India’s main opposition parties.

May 2024

An Indian Army base in Haa, Bhutan, close to a disputed border with China, on Aug. 3, 2017. (Gilles Sabrie/The New York Times)

What’s Driving India-China Tensions?

USIP

USIP experts Dean Cheng, Sameer Lalwani, Daniel Markey and Nilanthi Samaranayake examine what has changed on the border in the past four years, new domains where India-China competition has intensified, what role India’s general elections this spring could play in shaping these dynamics and the implications for U.S.-India relations.

March 2024

Chinese and Indian Responses to the Gaza War

China-India Brief, Centre on Asia and Globalisation,
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

The war in Gaza, especially its disruption of maritime shipping through the Red Sea and potential to escalate into a wider regional conflict, threatens important Chinese and Indian material interests. Those threats have naturally conditioned aspects of the wartime policy responses from Beijing and New Delhi.

However, because neither China nor India perceives the war as a vital threat, and because neither wields great influence over its conduct or outcome, their policy responses have tended to reflect a range of other parochial aims. Above all, China has opportunistically turned the war into an exercise in diplomatic point-scoring against the United States (US). India, for its part, has clung stubbornly to a pre-war vision for the “new Middle East.” For now, China’s approach appears to be paying greater dividends, but India’s policies already serve important domestic political purposes and might still pay off over the long run.

February 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden joined other leaders for a photo at the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 2023. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Two Years Later, What Has the Indo-Pacific Strategy Achieved?

US Institute of Peace

This month marks the second anniversary of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). USIP experts Carla Freeman, Mirna Galic, Daniel Markey, and Vikram Singh assess what the strategy has accomplished in the past two years, how it has navigated global shocks and its impact on partnerships in the region.

February 2024

‘A setback for US-Bangladesh relations’

US Institute of Peace

Daniel Markey, senior advisor for South Asia Programs at the United States Institute of Peace, speaks to Ramisa Rob of The Daily Star about the US perspective on Bangladesh’s January 7 election.

January 2024

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, at the India-Israel Business Summit in New Delhi, Jan. 15, 2018. (Indian Ministry of External Affairs)

Amid War in the Middle East, India-Israel Ties Reach New Milestone

US Institute of Peace

The U.S. should not see India’s support for Israel as evidence of a broader alignment with Washington, as New Delhi sees the war through a different prism.

November 2023

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in Wuhan, China, April 27, 2018. Even as tensions simmer, both leaders want to prevent an escalation that could lead to conflict. (Indian Ministry of External Affairs)

Three Things to Know About China-India Tensions

US Institute of Peace

While neither side wants escalation, their actions risk exacerbating a classic security dilemma, leading to costly, high-stakes competition.

October 2023

India as It Is

Foreign Affairs

Washington and New Delhi Share Interests, Not Values

July/August, 2023

‘China’s aggression, Russian’s unreliability, convinced India to value US’

Rediff

Dr Markey — currently, a Senior Advisor, South Asia at the Washington, DC think-tank, the United States Institute of Peace — took time out from his schedule to answer Nikhil Lakshman’s questions.

June 30, 2023

President Joe Biden meets with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Tokyo, May 24, 2022. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Modi’s Trip to Washington Marks New Heights in U.S.-India Ties

US Institute of Peace

The bedrock for cooperation between the United States and India lies in a shared interest in deterring Chinese territorial aggression and challenging the extension of China’s political influence and military presence in India’s backyard.

June 20, 2023

Uncertain Aims on the Line of Actual Control

China-India Brief, Centre on Asia and Globalisation,
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Three years after a deadly brawl between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), relations between Beijing and New Delhi remain in what Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has repeatedly described as an “abnormal” condition. Strangely, at the heart of a dispute that has persisted over decades now lie troubling questions about the basic policy aims of both sides. Whereas until the early 2010s Beijing and New Delhi appear to have understood each other’s priorities, core interests, and redlines sufficiently to manage the border without serious violence, a stepwise uptick in border skirmishing since then—with no end in sight—suggests that they now lack clarity.

May 23, 2023

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang addresses the U.N Human Right Council, Feb. 27, 2023. (U.N. Geneva)

Five Takeaways from China’s Latest Diplomacy
US Institute of Peace

As the U.S. and China resume high-level engagement, Beijing is pushing for a role as mediator in Ukraine and as a key player amid crises in its backyard.

May 18, 2023