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.

2009: The Year of Change

  • By Ilmas Futehally
One of the things that I mentioned in my last column Geremek's World was the late Professor's thinking on the future of Europe. When I met him in 2005, he had predicted that 2009 would be a year of change for Europe with many elections, including the election for the European Parliament to take place in 2009. He had said that maybe Europe would shine after that- depending on the kind of political decisions that the new leaders are able to take.
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What Next in Progress?

  • By Sundeep Waslekar
The last century especially if we extend it back to 1870 was unique. It took 18 centuries for the population of the planet to increase from 250 million around 1 AD to 1 billion in 1800. It increased to 1.6 billion by 1900 and it had crossed 6 billion in 2000. Such exponential growth of population is unprecedented. It was also around the beginning of the last century give and take a couple of decades on either side - that internal combustion machine, aircraft, electricity, telephone and penicillin came into being. Later on the human specie built on the foundation of these inventions to create radio, computer, space travel, internet and the possibility of a visit to another celestial body in the universe.
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Russia, Georgia and the Middle East: A Re-thinking of Cold War Tactics

  • By Gitanjali Bakshi
The events that have taken place from 8th August 2008 until today have served as a turning point in Russian foreign policy. After years of political isolation in the global arena, it seems as though the recent conflict over Southern Ossetia has shaken the Russian bear from out of her cave.
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Who calls the shots?

  • By Rohit Honawar
The general elections in Pakistan were conducted amongst much expectation and optimism that a new government and a return to democracy would usher in a period of change and stability which had eluded the country in recent times. The PPP led coalition entered the political arena on the back of an election victory which was arguably achieved through the sympathy vote of an electorate mourning the loss of their recently assassinated leader, Benazir Bhutto. The man in charge, Asif Zardari, spoke of no political credentials and was tasked with forming a government with an increasingly unpopular President at its helm; a coalition partner at odds with the former general and determined to see through ˜his party's political agenda and; influential external powers waving an invisible hand over issues of national importance.
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Will Energy and Environmental Industries Build World Peace?

  • By Sundeep Waslekar
S C Jamir, Governor of Maharashtra and Goa in India, made a startling remark while speaking at the inauguration of the SFG International Conference on Responsibility to the Future. He suggested that just as coal and steel had created lasting cooperation between France and Germany in the last century, energy and environmental industries would be the building blocks of peace between hostile nations in the 21st century.
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Mega Communities

  • By Sundeep Waslekar
A few years ago, the deluge in Mumbai produced a miracle. As the city started getting flooded, hundreds of young men suddenly appeared in the water from nowhere. They risked their own life to save children and old folks who could not find their way...
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