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 Settlement on Settlements

  • By Gitanjali Bakshi
Everyone involved in the current Israel-Palestine peace negotiations waited with bated breath for the 26th of September - the day the 10-month Israeli freeze on settlement building expired. Would Netanyahu extend the moratorium as a gesture of sincerity towards peace negotiations? Would Abbas be able to save face among the Palestinians if he didn'? Will Obama's effort to attend to a two-state solution actually amount to something? Or is this the end? The answers to these questions will set the course of Israel-Palestine relations for the next 12 months.
Read More

Our Time is Now

In December of 2009, the United Nations passed a resolution to declare 2010-2011 as the International Year of the Youth, starting on August 12, 2010 and ending August 11, 2011. The focus is on three main areas increasing investment in today's young population, mobilizing and engaging the youth, and increasing intercultural understanding among youth. In a time when the headlines are full of bad news and we see the mistakes of the older generation, it is important to highlight the difference made by thousands of young people around the world, and to provide them with the space to do more.
Read More

Kashmir Another Intifada?

  • By Gitanjali Bakshi
During the recent troubles in Kashmir, many analysts were quick to draw parallels between Kashmir and Palestine, stating that the unrest in the valley is similar to that of the Palestinian Intifadas. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the nature of the recent protests stone throwing by youth as a reaction to heightened security measures and economic stagnation is strikingly comparable to the Palestinian riots witnessed in 1987 and 2000.
Read More

India and China: A Careful Dance of Diplomacy

  • By Anumita Raj
The 21st century should, by all accounts, be India's for the taking. Indeed, the world seems to expect it of us. If in the previous century, we overthrew our colonial shackles, then it is in this century that we are supposed to take advantage of India's inherent and abundant endowments to become a regional and global superpower. However, the country has been hamstrung, both by its own missteps and by its regional rival, China.
Read More

The Politics of Aid

  • By Rohit Honawar
As the world watches in disbelief and horror, the extent of the devastation caused by the monsoon-driven floods across Pakistan, there is a sense of reluctance to assist in the relief and rehabilitation of the nearly 17.2 million people that have been adversely affected.
Read More

Mind the Gap South Asia’s New Dilemma

  • By Joyanto Mukherjee
The ongoing conflict in Thailand has been covered diligently by the international press for the past few months. The media has been analysing the situation from every possible angle. This enthusiasm has, in return, managed to keep the spotlight away from a trend which can now be observed in many countries in this region. There is a growing gap between classes in countries in this belt and this is no more confined only to Thailand. The gap between the rich and the poor are expanding steadily, but surely. This trend, if not addressed immediately, will usher a new and dangerous era for countries in South and South Eastern Asia and may well cause a definite slowdown in the region's march towards development.
Read More