Observer Research Foundation America

08/06/2026

India’s ambitious future is unfolding along two tracks: one in indigenous capability and the other in internationally integrated commercial innovation.

For Washington, this creates both an opportunity and a policy test, argues Vishal Manve:

“American firms have long struggled to translate the landmark 2008 civil nuclear agreement into commercially viable projects. India’s emerging two track strategy offers a different lens. Cooperation need not hinge exclusively on utility scale reactor deals. A more durable framework could emerge by engaging across both pillars of India’s nuclear trajectory: indigenous breeder and fuel-cycle development on one side, and commercially oriented partnerships in fuels, components, and advanced technologies on the other.

For U.S. policymakers shaping Indo-Pacific energy strategy, sustained engagement across both tracks may ultimately determine whether the next chapter of U.S.–India civil cooperation moves beyond the promise of the 2008 deal toward a meaningful long-term partnership.”

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By Vishal Manve India’s nuclear future is increasingly unfolding along two parallel tracks, one rooted in indigenous strategic capability and the other in internationally integrated commercial innovation. For Washington, understanding and engaging both will be central to the next phase of U.S.–I...

06/06/2026

IN-PERSON EVENT | Join Observer Research Foundation America next Thursday for our next breakfast on the rise of new powers and the evolution of global geopolitics and diplomacy.

📍 ORF America
🗓️ June 11, 2026
🔗 to register: https://bit.ly/49FTMix

05/06/2026

Bangladesh's garment factories, Sri Lanka's transport networks, and Nepal's cooking cylinders depend on petroleum flowing through the . While the Iran conflict was not South Asia’s war, smaller South Asian states are paying the price for it.

Some recommendations from Piyush Verma on how the United States and India can support South Asia’s energy resilience 👇

1️⃣ The United States and India should work to fast-track investment, support emergency energy financing, and back the UAE–India deep-sea pipeline as a strategic infrastructure priority.

2️⃣India should anchor energy security through emergency fuel-sharing frameworks and preferential supply arrangements with strategic neighbors.

3️⃣ New Delhi should champion a regional strategic petroleum reserve framework, which this crisis has proved is urgently needed.

4️⃣ South Asian governments must confront the politically inconvenient truth that their fossil fuel dependency is so deep that a distant conflict can destabilize household budgets in a matter of weeks.

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By Piyush Verma The conflict in West Asia was not South Asia's war. But South Asia — and particularly the smaller South Asian states such as Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan — are paying the price in fuel queues, kitchen economies, and fiscal wounds that will take years to heal.

05/06/2026

Rising prices have generated a new interest in to mitigate the current supply disruption and reduce long-term demand for fossil fuels.

The Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA), established during India’s G20 presidency in 2023, could help build the broader ecosystem necessary to support large-scale and sustainable biofuel production, argue Anit Mukherjee and Carol Arkalji.

Through policy coordination, technology transfer, and knowledge-sharing among major producers, the GBA could bolster the development of domestic biofuel industries and position as a pillar of long-term security.

04/06/2026

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Raul Alfaro-Pelico to Observer Research Foundation America as a Non-Resident Fellow! He brings expertise on energy, climate change, sustainability, infrastructure, and decarbonization, with a particular focus on .

Dr. Alfaro-Pelico is currently a Senior Fellow at School of Engineering at Lancaster University. He recently served as a Senior Advisor on the to the African Union, where he provided policy advice and technical expertise on African perspectives at G20 working groups, and dialogue facilitation to harmonize Africa’s positions on finance and Sherpa tracks.

03/06/2026

are vital inputs to virtually every that shape modern life, but established links in their supply chains are subject to sharp geopolitical and economic constraints.

In a new background paper, Jeffrey Bean and Dhruva Jaishankar assess the growing demand for , the risk of disruption to supply chains, and prospects for international collaboration between the United States and its partners to address the global shortfall:

“The global shortfall has been looming for over a decade but has been difficult to address for at least three reasons. One, the demand for critical minerals continues to rise sharply. The IEA projects demand for critical minerals to double from 2025 to 2030 and quadruple by 2040. Two, the mining and refining of critical minerals is highly concentrated: the top three refining nations of key minerals rose from around 82 percent in 2020 to 86 percent in 2024. Three, investments in mining and processing are particularly challenging on economic and environmental grounds. Even under perfect circumstances, projects take a long time to develop and have to withstand cyclical markets, and struggle to attract private equity. Most countries — particularly democratic societies with market economies — must also contend with high capital costs, long-term risk, workforce and skills shortfalls, and outdated regulations. Political will and large subsidies are consequently required to develop national capabilities in discovery and exploration, mining and extraction, refining and processing, and recycling, even as private investment is key to long-term success.”

Read more: https://bit.ly/4uO1IXi

03/06/2026

The vulnerabilities of the past decade have exposed how precariously the Global South's integration into the world economy remains tethered to fragile infrastructure, strategic chokepoints, and inherited institutions.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the disruptions of recent years have made it clear that South-South trade cannot be unlocked without addressing deep gaps in physical, institutional, and digital connectivity.

In Chapter 7 of ORF Global Quarterly: "Disruption and Recalibration", Jhanvi Tripathi and Samriddhi Vij explain what a more resilient trade architecture for the Global South would actually require, and argues that anticipatory investment must replace reactive intervention if the new architecture is to hold.

Read the full publication here: https://bit.ly/4x7IPQU

02/06/2026

As the crisis continues to disrupt global supplies, governments are looking for ways to contain prices and explore options to ensure security. This has generated renewed interest in to both mitigate the current supply disruption and reduce long-term demand for fossil fuels.

Anit Mukherjee and Caroline Arkalji explain how high oil prices are creating an opportunity for the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA):

“As governments respond to renewed insecurity and volatile oil markets, the challenge is no longer simply increasing blending mandates, but building the broader ecosystem necessary to support large-scale and sustainable production. This is where the GBA could become increasingly important. Beyond expanding supply, the alliance has the potential to reduce fragmentation across global markets by promoting greater alignment in standards, certification systems, and blending frameworks, while facilitating technical cooperation among both established and emerging producers. Discussions around initiatives such as Sustainable Aviation Fuels corridors also illustrate how the alliance could support greater regulatory alignment across emerging low-carbon fuel markets.”

Read here:

By Anit Mukherjee and Caroline Arkalji If implemented effectively, the Global Biofuels Alliance could help position biofuels not simply as a short-term response to supply disruptions, but as a more strategic pillar of long-term energy security, industrial development, and energy transitions.

01/06/2026

The Global South has moved from the periphery to the centre of strategic competition between the United States and China. For countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the challenge is no longer simply how to engage Washington or Beijing diplomatically, but how to preserve developmental autonomy in an environment where great-power competition is restructuring the markets and industrial choices on which their futures depend.

Chapter 6 of ORF Global Quarterly: "Disruption and Recalibration" examines India's strategy of managed interdependence, and argues that dual de-risking from both China and the United States may be the only credible path to strategic autonomy in the years ahead.

Read the full publication here: https://bit.ly/3RVXZse

29/05/2026

🎧 LISTEN NOW: Season 2 Episode #14 🎧

In this week’s episode of Around the World, Veda Vaidyanathan, Fellow in Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, joins hosts Dhruva Jaishankar and Rachel Rizzo to break down the latest outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda — highlighting its implications for health governance and evolving India-Africa ties, as well as the recent cancellation of the fourth India-Africa Forum Summit. The hosts also recap U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trips to Europe and India, assessing the outcomes of the Foreign Ministers meeting and key developments in U.S.-India relations.

Around the World with Dhruva Jaishankar and Rachel Rizzo premieres on Fridays so tune in on:

▶️ YouTube: https://bit.ly/43zoRkn

🎙️ Spotify: https://bit.ly/4nZcsQ7

🔉 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4o28Qgw

🌐 ORF America website: https://bit.ly/43Dlnxe

In this week’s episode of Around the World, Veda Vaidyanathan, Fell...