Climate change is a global challenge that is largely taking place due to increased levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), produced by the use of fossil fuels. The change in the climate is considered to be one of the greatest threats to Planet Earth. Climate variability is not a new phenomenon. In the past, it is known to have varied considerably at times too. However, scientific evidence has revealed that recent changes in climate triggered by both natural and human-made causes are catastrophic.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), established in 1985 can be seen as an attempt to foster cooperation that never quite took off, in a region that has been marred by conflicts and animosity in spite of geographical and cultural similarities. The formation was initiated by Bangladesh's Ziaur Rahman and taken forward by India's Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, in an attempt to overturn the hostility that characterizes the region. Political will to necessitate cooperation still evades most of its members.

The final frontier of outer space is yet to be transformed into a battlefield. If the present shaping up of the geopolitics of the world is taken into perspective, the next two decades will witness a global arms race, culminating in a sophisticated weapon system being put into the orbit.

The threat of external aggression no longer continues to be the only source of destabilisation, collapse or degradation of a state system. Rather, in the post-Cold War period, political instability, legitimacy crisis and violent conflicts within a state has given rise to the concept of internal security (IS).

India’s Look East Policy, which was initiated in the early 1990s, has led to key changes in its foreign policy strategies towards East and Southeast Asia. Similarly even with China, India’s relations have witnessed remarkable advancements, particularly in the economic arenas.

Within the canopy of a redefined “new great power relations”, primarily between the US and China, there appears to be a few obvious limitations to America’s strategic hedging against China in Asia. The limitations of America’s direct intervention in matters relating to China’s assertiveness in Asia came to the fore on two separate occasions in a matter of less than a month, towards the end of 2013.

The Syrian conflict which began two years ago has taken many dramatic turns in recent months. The chemical attacks that claimed over a thousand deaths in the city of Ghouta, Syria in August 2013 shocked the world by horrific footages. President Obama decided to strike Syria even unilaterally after what was defined by White House as the Syrian regime crossing the ‘redline’, but decided to go ahead with the approval of the US  Congress. Russia, then came forward with a plan to bring Syria’s chemical weapons under international supervision and later to dismantle them.