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.

We’re living through a moment of profound global churn.

Trust in politics is eroding. Nationalism is surging. Great powers are retreating from the idea that the world can grow together. Instead, they are embracing zero-sum competition, technological supremacy, and national power as the primary source of legitimacy.

In this episode of The Great Power Show, I’m joined by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, political theorist, public intellectual, and one of sharpest thinkers on democracy, liberalism, and the international order.

We take a step back from the headlines to ask some bigger questions: What happens to the global system when national supremacy becomes the reigning ideology? Are liberal democracy and individual freedom facing a deeper crisis, not just politically, but philosophically? And as technology reshapes power, identity, and governance, are we moving toward a world where the individual is increasingly subordinated to the state and collective ambition?

We also explore the limits of great power dominance, the shrinking space for middle powers, Russia’s role in the world, China’s vision of modernity, and why the real battle today may be over legitimacy, at home as much as abroad.

This is a wide-ranging conversation about power, identity, technology, and the future of global order.

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.

Europe today finds itself at a geopolitical crossroads. From Brussels to Berlin, Paris to Warsaw, policymakers are grappling with a world order that is undergoing fundamental changes. At one level, there is a growing sense of clarity: Europe today sees a world shaped by intensifying great-power rivalry, fragile economic interdependence, and political currents that are tugging the continent in different directions. But beneath that clarity lies deep uncertainty. What role is there for Europe in this new world that is emerging?

The return of Donald Trump to the White House in January only sharpened these questions. European leaders said they were better prepared for a second Trump presidency, and more attuned to the risks. Yet a year on, concerns about American reliability linger. The transatlantic relationship still feels incredibly fragile and dialogue with America feels coercive and extractive. Nothing exemplifies this than the divergences between the EU and the US over the war in Ukraine.

Then there is China. The EU officially describes China as a partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival. It has developed several instruments to address concerns around economic imbalances, subsidies and human rights. But the relationship remains rocky. This was evident when the EU-China summit earlier this year ended with nothing substantive agreed.

And finally, there’s India—an emerging partner, a strategic opportunity, but also a relationship shaped by persistent friction over trade, Russia, and values. The question is whether Europe and India can find enough convergence to build something truly durable.

So how should we understand Europe in 2025? What worldview is taking shape, what anxieties lie beneath it, and where might Europe be headed?

To unpack all this, in this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak with Gesine Weber, Senior Researcher on Global Security at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich. Gesine believes that in order to deal with the challenges before it, Europe needs to re-imagine its grand strategy from a realist perspective. This not only entails arriving at a new balance in transatlantic ties but also first outlining a clear vision for the relationship with China rather than simply creating specific toolkits or instruments.

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.

Gesine’s Substack:

• 5 mindset shifts for better European strategy on China

• The enduring relevance of realism for grand strategy in Europe

Late in October, the Communist Party of China concluded the Fourth Plenary session of the 20th Central Committee. Plenums as critically important gatherings of the Party’s elite. This one outlined the vision for China’s overall development for the next five years.

The nutshell version of the long document that was issued was that Xi Jinping’s leadership has taken China down the right path of development and amassing power. So, we should expect more of that—more continuity in policy. In that sense, the Chinese leadership appears extremely confident that history and momentum are on its side. That said, the Party also believes that China is in an era where risks and opportunities coexist.

So when it comes to the balance, do the opportunities outweigh the risks? Or is it the other way around? If you look at developments within China, power has become more centralised and political discipline more exacting. Abroad, China faces a world less willing to accommodate its ambitions, from tense ties with the United States to friction with its neighbours and rising technological barriers.

So how should we read China in 2025? What does the Fourth Plenum reveal about the direction of economic policy, inner-Party debates, the state of the PLA, and the issue of political stability?

To unpack these questions, in this episode of the Great Power Show, I speak with Neil Thomas, Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Neil’s one of the most astute and thoughtful watchers of Chinese politics. Our conversation begins with how the world looks from Xi Jinping’s vantage point, and what that tells us about China’s evolving political logic and global ambitions. Along the way, we explore China’s current trajectory. We end by contemplating a China without Xi at the helm, and what the next chapter of leadership might mean for Beijing and the world.

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.

There’s a paradox at the heart of the India–Russia relationship.

On one level, there are no direct conflicts of interest. In fact, at a moment like the present, when even trusted partners like the United States appear willing to coerce New Delhi, Moscow seems like a reliable friend. It remains a key defense supplier, and now also an important energy partner, offering deep discounts to keep its own economy afloat. The relationship with Moscow also gives Delhi a degree of maneuverability in the wider Eurasian space.

And yet, there are growing limitations, and increasing costs, that this friendship brings. Beyond the 25% tariff penalty that the Trump administration has imposed on India for buying Russian oil, there are deeper strategic concerns. Russia’s increasing dependence on China raises anxieties in Delhi; its tentative outreach to Pakistan creates unease; and of course, the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to complicate India’s ties with Europe.

All of these issues are likely to return to the headlines come December, when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Delhi. But to understand the stakes of that visit, and indeed, the future of this partnership, we need to step back and look at Russia itself: the political system, the worldview of its leaders, and the strategic logic that drives its behaviour.

How stable is the Russian state today? What kind of world order does Moscow want to build? And how does it really see India and the Indo-Pacific amid a world of shifting alignments?

To unpack these questions, in this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak to Aleksei Zakharov, a Research Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme in New Delhi. Our conversation begins with a look at how Moscow views the world; what kind of an order does it crave? How has the leadership managed economic and political stability while engaging in what seems to be a protracted conflict in Ukraine.

We also discuss how Russia conceives of great power competition between the United States and China? How deep are Moscow’s equities with Beijing? And how does it position itself in the Indo-Pacific, a region where its influence remains limited but its ambitions endure.

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.

Look around the world today; there are few certainties. The global order is in a state of flux. And that means that every country is rethinking old assumptions, and even old partnerships. There’s a lot of jockeying for wriggle room; a lot of signalling to partners and rivals. And often in the media environment that we live in today, signals get taken to mean substantive or even structural shifts. Alas, sometimes a signal is simply that; a signal.

So what should we pay attention to if we want to understand the trajectory of countries and the international system? Interests, of course. But what else? What are the structural factors that students and watchers of International Relations should study?

To understand these dynamics better, in this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak to Stephen Nagy, Professor of Politics and International Studies International Christian University in Tokyo. Stephen is a critic of the snapshot analysis that permeates the media environment. He contends that instead of photo-ops and rhetoric, one should focus on structural factors like budgetary allocations and force posture. In other words, it’s not the stated but the revealed preference that matters in geopolitics.

Our conversation also focussed on the nature of US-China competition. More importantly, what is the Trump administration’s America First agenda, and how does it tie in with this great power competition? And of course, how are Japan and other countries in East Asia contending with these turbulent times?

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.

Read Prof. Nagy’s piece in Japan Times: International relations analysis needs to grow up

About: The Great Power Show is a bi-weekly podcast featuring candid conversations and thought-provoking interviews with leading scholars, thinkers and practitioners on the geopolitical and geo-economic changes shaping our world.