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Center for International Relations
and Sustainable Development

The Lose-Lose Tech War

SINGAPORE/LOS ANGELES – The Sino-American geopolitical rivalry is growing increasingly bitter, with Russia’s war in Ukraine only the latest source of schism. The mutual antagonism is deepening, with little effort on either side to stem the deterioration in the bilateral relationship. It doesn’t have…

Challenges for India’s upcoming G20 presidency

The pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have elevated global debt levels to new heights, beyond the stress nations were already facing before the pandemic. According to the recent IMF World Economic Outlook, the debt-to-GDP ratio in the median emerging market and the middle-income country was about 60 p…

Soft Power After Ukraine

CAMBRIDGE – As Russian missiles pound Ukrainian cities, and as Ukrainians fight to defend their country, some avowed realists might say, “So much for soft power.” But such a response betrays a shallow analysis. Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes you want. A smart realist under…

Detention For Security Reasons in Non-International Armed Conflicts

Detainees who are under lawful pre-trial detention are protected by the judicial guarantee provisions of Common Article 3 and Protocol II of Geneva Conventions (GC). Apart from these rules on the treatment of detainees, international humanitarian law (IHL) does not provide any explicit legal basis f…

Can the Geneva Conventions Shield the ICC from Attacks?

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has come under a lot of pressure in recent years from non-state parties in what it appears to be a series of efforts to interfere with the way in which the ICC conducts its mandate. Examples include the only recently rescinded US sanctions on certain officials …

Digital Watermarking: Protecting Civilians in Cyber Warfare

Since its introduction in the ’80s, the realm of cyberspace has developed rapidly as a platform for conflict. In the post 9/11 era, cyber-conflict has evolved into what experts call the ‘militarisation stage’ , in which the capabilities of actors escalate, including military presence, and the possib…

World economy: the big factors to watch closely

Will 2022 be the year when the world economy recovers from the pandemic? That’s the big question on everyone’s lips as the festive break comes to an end. One complicating factor is that most of the latest major forecasts were published in the weeks before the omicron variant swept the worl…