In a world shaped by war in Europe, strategic rivalry with China, and growing uncertainty about the United States, the India–Europe relationship is quietly undergoing a major transformation. Once seen as slow-moving and largely transactional, ties between New Delhi and Brussels have accelerated dramatically over the past two years.

On India’s Republic Day this year, the government hosted European leaders, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as special guests. The summit that followed the parade and pageantry delivered a major breakthrough: the signing of a long-negotiated free trade agreement, a deal von der Leyen described as the “mother of all deals.” Alongside it, India and the EU also inked a new Security and Defence Partnership, marking the beginning of a qualitatively new phase in their relationship.

This sudden momentum is striking. Both India and the European Union are known for sprawling bureaucracies and painstaking negotiations. The FTA itself had been discussed, often haltingly, for over two decades. So what explains this newfound urgency? And what has driven this rediscovery between New Delhi and Brussels, especially after several tense years marked by European frustrations over India’s relationship with Russia?

To unpack these questions, on this episode of The Great Power Show, I’m joined by Garima Mohan, Senior Fellow for India at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Garima lays out the three strategic shocks reshaping European thinking, explains why India’s importance has risen so sharply in Brussels, and shows how geopolitical churn is pushing both sides toward a new strategic dynamic.

From trade and defence cooperation to technology and the search for strategic autonomy, this conversation explores what India and Europe now expect from each other, and what this partnership could mean in an increasingly fragmented global order.

• Garima’s essay referenced in the show

• Indian Radius newsletter by Vanshika Saraf, which offers a breakdown of the India-EU summit

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe, and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work I do, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

The Horn of Africa has long been described as one of the world’s most unstable regions. But instability, as we know, is rarely accidental. It is often the outcome of history, geography, and politics colliding over time.

From contested borders drawn at the end of colonial rule, to unresolved questions of statehood and sovereignty, the region has been shaped by incomplete state formation and recurring external intervention. Add to this competition over resources, ethnic fragmentation, and inter-state rivalries, and the Horn becomes not just a regional fault line, but a space of real geopolitical consequence.

Today, those dynamics are intersecting with a changing global order. Governments in the Horn are navigating a world that may no longer be defined by clear rules or stable hierarchies; one marked instead by transactional diplomacy, great-power competition, and strategic fragmentation. At the same time, shifts in US economic policy and aid under Trump are forcing African states to reassess assumptions about development, dependence, and autonomy.

To understand the geopolitics of the region, and how the Horn along with Africa at large is viewing the world, I reached out to Dr Hassan Khannenje, Director of the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies in Nairobi. Dr. Khannenje argues that the Horn is increasingly emerging as a strategic theatre amid great power competition. His critique of US policy and the broader West is biting; and his perspective on Africa-China ties is one of a pragmatist. Fundamentally, Dr. Khannenje worries that in the emerging world disorder, a new scramble for Africa is likely to play out as global powers compete for maritime chokepoints and the minerals required for future technologies.

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe, and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work I do, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

We are entering a dangerous phase in global politics, one where speed, force, and unilateral action are beginning to matter more than law, legitimacy, or restraint. Great powers are increasingly willing to test the boundaries of sovereignty.

Just hours after we recorded this episode of The Great Power Show, the United States carried out a military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The operation sent a troubling signal of how power may be exercised in an emerging, more brutish international order. This is something that I intend to explore in future episodes.

In this episode, however, we step back and examine the deeper strategic context shaping American policy in the Western Hemisphere. To do that, I reached out to Dr. Evan Ellis, Latin America Research Professor and the General Douglas MacArthur Research Chair at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, and a former member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean.

We begin by looking at how the United States is re-prioritising the Western Hemisphere as a core strategic theatre. How are older ideas, such as the Monroe Doctrine, shaping contemporary American thinking? What does this have to do with strategic competition between the US and China? What are Chinese interests in Latin America and the Caribbean region? Are we entering a phase where great powers, including the US, are looking to secure their spheres of influence and perhaps will we see some sort of trade-offs between them in this context?

You can subscribe to Dr. Ellis’ substack here.

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe, and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work I do, don’t hesitate to reach out.