GP/ORF E-Book Showcase

By GP - 15 May 2024

An introduction to four recent E-Books from Global Policy's partnership with the Observer Research Foundation. Each is free to download from the links below.

Future Warfare and Critical Technologies: Evolving Tactics and Strategies

Modern warfare has continuously evolved, with technological advancements shaping its conduct. Critical technologies like cyberspace and artificial intelligence (AI) are making new warfighting tools available, even as traditional ones like nuclear weapons are witnessing a resurgence. These changes have brought greater lethality and destruction in warfighting and blurred the lines of conflict, with direct warfare being replaced by new forms such as hybrid warfare or grey zone tactics (where the threat has diffused, and proxy actors have taken the lead).

Edited by Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Sameer Patil, the essays in this volume seek to unpack key critical technologies and explore their implications for the future of warfare. They tackle themes like cyberwarfare, challenges of attribution, swarming drones, autonomous weapons, AI, and their impact on land warfare, blockchain and nuclear weapons and space. Written by domain experts and renowned scholars, the essays answer four critical questions: Who/what are we fighting? Where are we fighting? How are we fighting? And when are we fighting?

To download the free volume as a PDF click please click here or for e-book readers please click here.

The Making of a Global Bharat

An ambitious and articulate Bharat is reimagining its global engagement at a time when cracks are appearing in the post-1945 world order. A host of challenges—such as the rise of multipolarity, the onset of deglobalisation, the advent of a technological revolution, the deepening polarisation between the East and the West, and the divide between the Global North and South—are upending the established order that was built on a foundation of hope and cooperation. Old ideas and institutions can no longer hold the weight of our problems, even as assumptions of the past need a radical rethink.

This issue of the GP-ORF Series, titled The Making of a Global Bharat, celebrates India’s global engagements and explores the core elements of this new foreign policy vision shaped over the past 10 years. It includes curated essays by renowned scholars and domain experts who unpack the ideas and critical initiatives powering India’s global resurgence.

To download the free volume as a PDF click please click here or for e-book readers please click here.

Bridging the Ingenuity Gap: Ideas for a Vibrant G20

The Think20 (T20) is the G20’s Engagement Group for think tanks. It is, in effect, the leaders’ ‘ideas bank’. The Observer Research Foundation served as the official T20 Secretariat during India’s presidency. It facilitated the exchange of perspectives among high-level experts, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners; produced policy briefs and other knowledge products relevant to the G20; and oversaw the organisation of side events to enable further discussions around the G20’s priority themes. Taken together, the T20’s activities lent analytical depth and rigour to the G20’s deliberations.

This compendium is a collection of 27 T20 policy briefs and a special contribution, chosen from over 320 such briefs published during India’s tenure in 2023. Authored by thought leaders and subject experts collaborating across different institutions, geographies, and disciplines, they cover all seven of the T20’s thematic areas. They also represent some of the finest ideation and writing worldwide. Collectively, they make for an extraordinarily rich corpus of policy ideas and solutions for the problems of global governance. Many of them have fed into the deliberations of various working groups and ministerial meetings, and supported the G20’s efforts to deliver effective interventions.

To download the free volume as a PDF click please click here or for e-book readers please click here.

Aligned but Autonomous: India-US Relations in the Modi Era

This volume examines the trends in India-US ties under the Modi government over the last decade. As the various contributions illustrate, the past decade has seen a fundamental transformation in a relationship which, for all the opportunities, was seen as one that is never really able to achieve its full potential. Today, the US needs a democratic, economically buoyant India to craft a stable regional order in the Indo-Pacific. And India, too, requires a solid partnership with the US if it is to fulfil its massive domestic development needs and manage its external challenges effectively. Modi's singular contribution lies in recognising this fundamental reality and working toward operationalising it over the past decade.

To download the free volume as a PDF click please click here or for e-book readers please c lick here.