Spotlight West Asia by Ranjit Gupta
Ranjit Gupta
 Distinguished Fellow Amb Ranjit Gupta is a member of the Indian Foreign Service (retired), during his long tenure at th...
  • New Leadership Lineup in Saudi Arabia: Reading the Tea Leaves
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    02 Feb, 2015   ·    4827
    In Saudi Arabia, the incumbent King has the absolute right to designate a successor who is titled as the Crown Prince. However, with an eye to ensure acceptable successions in the future given the intense factional rivalries within the ro ...
  • IPCS Forecast: West Asia in 2015
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    05 Jan, 2015   ·    4794
    This edition of the IPCS Column, 'Spotlight West Asia', is the precis of a larger document titled 'West Asia in 2015', published under the IPCS Forecast 2015 series.  Click here to read the ful ...
  • Rise of the Islamic State: Implications for the Arab World
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    15 Dec, 2014   ·    4778
    Though it is going to take a long time to defeat the Islamic State (IS), and it must be defeated, some silver linings of the very dark cloud the IS represents are beginning to be hazily visible over the horizon. Since the proclamation ...
  • Islamic State: The Efficacy of Counter-strategies
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    04 Nov, 2014   ·    4727
    The efficacy of the US strategy to defeat the Islamic State (IS) can only be meaningfully evaluated in the context of the current regional and international geopolitical configurations. It should be self-evident that there is no possibili ...
  • War against the Islamic State: Political and Military Responses from the Region
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    06 Oct, 2014   ·    4682
    Strange things are happening in West Asia. Those who created the modern jihad in an extremely misguided and immature tactical response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan are today at war with its most extremist manifestation, the Islam ...
  • The Islamic State: No Country for the Old World Order
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    01 Sep, 2014   ·    4633
    Following spectacular successes in routing government forces and other opponents in both Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) announced the establishment of an Islamic State (IS) on June 30, 2014 to the absolute asto ...
  • India and the Conflict in Gaza
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    04 Aug, 2014   ·    4591
    The creation of Israel in Palestine was a Western venture to expiate their guilt for their historical ill treatment of the Jews, and, at the time it was finally done, also to implant a permanent base for safeguarding their own interests f ...
  • India in Iraq: Need for Better Focus
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    07 Jul, 2014   ·    4548
    Though Iraq has been a particularly good and politically supportive friend and had episodically been the top oil supplier to India in the past, relations perforce started losing momentum in the wake of the US policies after Iraq’s i ...
  • Looking West: Bridging the Gulf with the GCC
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    02 Jun, 2014   ·    4483
    For a potential global power like India clearly relations with China and the US are exceedingly important. Relations with Japan have acquired great strategic significance. Israel is a very valuable defence and high technology partner and ...
  • Elections in Iraq: Uncertain Prospects
    Ranjit Gupta   ·    05 May, 2014   ·    4425
    The US’ unilateral invasion of Iraq in 2003, the subsequent overthrow and execution of then President Saddam Hussein, and the complete dismantling of the Ba'athist state apparatus left an already emaciated Iraq – to over a ...
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