The 2013 election of Hassan Rouhani as the President of Iran proved crucial in exploring latest negotiations on its nuclear program, especially after a rough period of detente with the international community mainly the United States. The meeting in Geneva on November 24, 2013 regarding Iran’s nuclear program between Iranian officials and representatives from the permanent members of the U.N Security Council and Germany (P5+1) reached a temporary relief with negotiations planned from January 20, 2014 onwards into the coming months.

Environmental security has become a part of the policy debate in many countries but is yet to gain momentum in South Asia including India due to several other immediate concerns such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, malnutrition among others. What the establishments fail to realise is that these concerns are very much linked to environmental change and thus, without addressing the latter, the former cannot be tackled effectively and completely. India’s environmental security scenario cannot be understood in isolation.

Sea lanes of Communications have always played a strong role in the naval doctrines and strategies of countries. Security and command over these vital ‘super highways’ of the oceans strengthens a country’s’ overall security and influence in the region. Sea Line of Communication (SLOCS) in the Indian Ocean Region, which form an important part of the Indian Ocean Region trade and which more importantly carry vital resources such as oil and natural gas to the growing economies of Asia and the Pacific region have become even more crucial to secure.

Anwesha Ghosh, Research Scholar at Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt, Germany 2014 will not only remain a landmark year for Afghanistan, it is turning out to be extremely crucial year for other regional and global powers with stakes in the country. Afghans are gearing up for the third Presidential elections since …