Archives

Our archives are a repository of original thinking that chronicles two decades of research, analysis, and policy innovation. This collection brings together articles written by SFG’s founders and research analysts between 2005 and 2025, preserving the ideas, and insights that shaped our intellectual journey. These writings reflect the evolution of our thinking as we engaged with some of the world’s most pressing challenges and opportunities.

The archive offers a rich body of material for researchers, policymakers, students, journalists, and anyone interested in understanding complex global issues through a long-term strategic lens. The articles explore a wide spectrum of subjects, including peace and conflict, water diplomacy, international relations, technology, environmental sustainability, governance, security, and the changing dynamics of regional and global cooperation. They also place regional developments within broader international and geopolitical contexts.

Many of these articles anticipated trends and policy challenges that later became central to international discourse. Others document the development of concepts and frameworks that informed SFG’s subsequent research, dialogues, and publications. Together, they provide not only historical context but also enduring perspectives that continue to resonate in a rapidly changing world.

Beyond serving as a research resource, this archive offers a window into the intellectual history of SFG. It traces how our ideas evolved over time, how new policy concepts emerged through sustained inquiry, and how our engagement expanded from regional concerns to global challenges. Readers can follow the progression of our work across changing geopolitical landscapes and appreciate our evidence-based approaches to peace, security, and international cooperation.

Whether you are revisiting landmark analyses, exploring the origins of key policy ideas, or discovering our work for the first time, we hope these archives provide valuable insights, stimulate informed debate, and inspire fresh thinking about the future.

A Crisis of Power in Pakistan

  • By Anumita Raj
If asked, even the most casual reader of the newspaper would be able to answer the following question: what are amongst the most pressing issues in Pakistan at present? Included in the list are likely to be the fissure between the civilian government and the establishment, the overwhelming presence of terror networks within the country, the rampant corruption, the failing economy and the disintegrating relationship with the United States. What the casual reader might miss is an issue that those outside of Pakistan may not be privy to: an almost paralyzing lack of electricity within the country.
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Near and Present Danger

Climate change is no longer a distant threat; its affects are very visible today - erratic weather patterns, global warming, greater extreme weather events and natural disasters, and erratic rainfall. Countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia are the most affected by climate change. Natural disasters like flooding, droughts and cyclones have increased in frequency in this region and the situation is likely to get worse in the future.
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Bangladesh at 50

  • By Sanaa Arora
Recently, Bangladesh completed 40 years as an independent country. At the time of its birth, questions were raised about the country's survival. Four decades later, Bangladesh is counted among the Next Eleven Economies, which along with the BRICS, are a group of countries poised for high economic growth in the 21st century. Though the country has witnessed political successes as well as failures, it is looked upon as a leader in the field of development. Bangladesh has led many innovations in the development sector including microfinance by Grameen Bank, and nation reconstruction in education, health and social enterprise by BRAC, the world's largest non-governmental development organization.
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Community Radio in Indonesia: An Inspiration

  • By Jot Prakash Kaur
Countries in South and South East Asia can draw inspiration from the progress of community radio (CR) in Indonesia and develop it on similar lines. In the long term, the effective development of CR has the potential to help address community specific issues of the region.
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Emerging Africa: China’s Trade based approach

The 18th African Summit recently held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia saw the inauguration of an African Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa a USD 200 million gift from China marking the Africa-China economic and strategic relationship in stone. To understand the motivations behind China's generous gift to the African Union one must take a closer look at Africa's current economic scenario.
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The Irony of Collaboration

  • By Sundeep Waslekar
Sundeep Waslekar writes on the irony of cooperation, which seems most active in times of crisis or in search of solutions to impending crisis. However this spirit of collaboration disappears in the context of prosperity when greed and competition dominates human nature.
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