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.

Q & A with Dr. Fatima Al Shamsi, Secretary General of UAE University

June 13, 2007
By Gitanjali Bakshi

In May 2007 I met with academicians, local experts and researchers in the UAE. I hoped to gain an informed insight into the efforts being made in the region that would facilitate an Arab renaissance Gitanjali Bakshi (Strategic Foresight Group)

Emerging Eight

May 13, 2007
By Sundeep Waslekar

We live in an increasingly integrating global economy but we do not have a global polity. The Security Council is dysfunctional on crucial issues. The United Nations has made excellent contribution to positive transformation in the world, but most of it has been through its specialised agencies in the field of development, health, population control, among others.

The Future of Stupidity

April 13, 2007
By Sundeep Waslekar

Exactly 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli served the court of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, son of Pope Alexander VI, and the military general of the papacy. Machiavelli was so impressed by Borgia's crude pursuit of power that a decade and half later, he wrote a treatise, The Prince, as an offering to the Medici princes. Machiavelli was particularly impressed by Borgia's assassination of rivals on the new year's eve of 1503 in Sinigaglia. He advocated that princes should use crude use of force to acquire and retain power at any cost.

Bangladesh Past imperfect and future tense?

April 13, 2007
By Avanti Bhati

Following months of political ambiguity and turmoil which oversaw the complete subversion of the constitution, political stability currently being enjoyed in Bangladesh, has been ushered in, not by a democratically elected government with the backing of popular mandate, but by a caretaker government having the tacit support of the armed forces. It is these developments that merit a closer view of the events that have led to present day Bangladesh and assess what the future portends for the fledgling nation state.

Interview with Nikolay Paunov, President of Liberal Politilogical Institute (LPI)

April 13, 2007
By Ranjini Ramaswamy

Nikolay Paunov is the President of the Liberal Politological Institute (LPI) in Bulgaria. In this short interview, he explores his concerns about the 21st century, the complex dynamic that is terrorism and the ways in which to address the West-Islam discord.

Preventing Global Conflicts

February 27, 2007
By Sundeep Waslekar

After the peaceful end to the conflict between the NATO and Warsaw Treaty groups in the last decade of the last century, a hope was kindled that the new world order might adopt non-violent ways of preventing and resolving conflicts. This hope did not last for long. The twenty first century was inaugurated with an attack on Pentagon and the World Trade Centre by Al Qaeda. In its first half decade, it has seen new wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. There is a talk of a war in Iran. If wars are launched at this pace, the twenty first century might prove to be the most devastating of all.