Beyond trade: Defence as the strategic core of India-EU FTA

The FTA, if successfully executed, will invariably drive both the global actors into each other's defence- industrial value complex, something a typical procedurally rigid Brussels is particular about.

- MANISH BARMA & SHREYA SINHA

The completion of a year is meant to bring a sense of hindsight and reflection as we look back on the bygone months, considering both our successes and shortcomings.

Often, though, we rush into the imminent thrill of a new year, failing to reflect aptly on the year that's ending. This is a classic behavioural trait of human psychology, which often manifests in other spheres of human and public life. In this context, it is worth pondering that international relations can also be regarded as an expression of human nature, albeit upscaled. This was brilliantly argued by the famous philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his seminal work, “Leviathan.” However, fresh developments in India’s foreign policy might have prodded Hobbes to partially reassess his dictum, if he were alive today.