Before a prayer is spoken, before a hymn is sung, and before a deity is adorned, faith is often worn. What if the first fashion designers of India were not royal courts, luxury maisons, or celebrity couturiers, but temples, saints, artisans, and age-old rituals? It is a question that challenges the way we think about fashion. Today we think of clothing as an expression of personal style or seasonal trends. But fashion in India has never been all about looks. It has been a lan

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a new three-year plan for integrating artificial intelligence with the country's information and communications sector. Framed as the "AI + Information and Communication" initiative, the document lays out targets for intelligent network operations, expanded computing infrastructure, AI-enabled telecom services, and more than 30 high-value application scenarios by 2028. Illustration by The Geostrata AI

The United States leverages its “centrality” within global financial networks, particularly through the dominance of the US dollar and its influence over institutions such as SWIFT, to exert coercive economic pressure on other states. US sanctions policy has increasingly shifted from traditional trade embargoes toward targeted and secondary sanctions, extending pressure to non-sanctioned states and entities maintaining commercial or financial relations with sanctioned countri

Recently, on September 30, 2026, Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War, during a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, announced the establishment of the Autonomous Warfare Command, or “AutoWarCom”. Illustration by The Geostrata In a way, the announcement marked an institutional pivot in modern military affairs. By establishing a dedicated four-star command equipped with “service-like authorities", the U.S. Department of War is restructuring its forces to overcome modern military

The islands known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan have regained importance after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to the disputed territory. Russia has also conducted large-scale military exercises around the islands, which have provoked protests from Japan. Illustration by The Geostrata The renewed tensions over the islands come at a time when Russia’s military posture in the region is drawing greater attention from Japan

The traditional view of NVIDIA that prevailed was that the firm was the world’s most dominant supplier of AI chips. While that still holds true, over the past eighteen months, the firm has simultaneously pursued the path of a venture investor, a loan guarantor, and a customer-financing arm for the very companies that buy its hardware. The role NVIDIA now plays as a chip vendor and a chip financer is what is driving the already expanding AI bubble. By making credit access easi

On 7 August, 2026, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Titled the Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement, the pact aims to “strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all”, functioning in a similar manner to the collective defense principle enshrined in NATO's Article 5. Illustration by The Geostrat

The problem facing global governance today is not simply that its institutions are outdated as much as it is that the world has changed faster than our ability to respond to it. New centres of economic and political power have emerged, developing countries are demanding greater representation, and the interests of major powers have become harder to reconcile. Yet the institutions through which these competing interests are meant to be negotiated remain tied to an earlier dist

For decades, the world has run on the dollar. Oil is priced in dollars, most trade invoices are written in dollars only, and when a central bank anywhere from Lagos to Jakarta wants to build a reserve safety net, it still reaches for US Treasury Bonds First. This is not an accident, and it never should be. It is the result of America’s size, for its deep and liquid bond markets and the kind of institutional trust that took decades. Illustration by The Geostrata But lately a q

Digital Central Bank Currency (CBDC) has become one of the most important innovations in the field of money in the 21st century, being a digital obligation of the central bank that is identical to physical currency in terms of its legal force. The CBDC differs from privately issued cryptocurrencies or deposits held at commercial banks because it has the full backing of the monetary institution behind it. As economies around the world are digitalizing, the question is no longe

For Mongolia, geography does not just act as a hindrance to its foreign policy. In fact, geography is where foreign policy begins, since the country lies between Russia and China and therefore has to engage both countries diplomatically. Yet closer engagement with either also carries the risk of dependence. Mongolia’s response has traditionally been to balance its two neighbours while cultivating a network of “Third Neighbours” beyond its immediate geography. Recent developme

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are not just an important strategic outpost for India; rather, their position places India close to the sea routes that connect the Bay of Bengal with Southeast Asia, giving the country a strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the significance of the islands lies not only in where they are located, but in the increasing capability of India to use the islands for its maritime surveillance, operations, and engagements with the ne

For years, Ankara balanced its position on the agenda of air defence systems while being constantly tested by both sides. On one hand, it acquired the Russian-made S-400 Triumf long- and medium-range anti-aircraft missile system, and on the other, it continued its appeal to Washington about its interest in obtaining access to American F-35 Fighter jets. Illustration by The Geostrata The contradiction deepened as Ankara insisted on keeping the American F-35, while Washington i

The devastating flood that struck Nepal’s Rasuwa district on the 26th of August,2026 has raised a number of questions about Himalayan communities’ vulnerability to extreme events. The Nepalese Foreign Ministry said that huge volumes of water, mud and debris swept down the river of Rasuwa and then into the Trishuli and Narayani river systems within minutes. The Government of Nepal is still investigating the causes and evolution of this event. Illustration by The Geostrata How

Uranium is a heavy metal, mined from the ground like any other essential commodity, such as coal or iron ore. It is not of much importance when it is first mined, but becomes important when it has gone through a process inside a nuclear reactor wherein its atoms split apart in a process called fission, and that reaction releases an enormous amount of heat. Illustration by The Geostrata Heat boils water into steam, then the steam spins a turbine, which then generates electrici

Indian foreign policy is reaching a stage where its relations with the US are too significant to give up but too unclear to stake everything on. New Delhi is strengthening its ties with Russia and China through its involvement in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, while bolstering its partnership with the United States in defence, technology, trade, and the Indo-Pacific region. Illustration by The Geostrata This growing strategic engagement with multiple power c

In modern air warfare, a stealth fighter operating without a top-tier engine is a little more than an expensive glider. For India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the engine is the strategic core of the entire program. This billion-dollar project represents India’s effort to enter the circle of nations operating native fifth-generation stealth platforms. While General Electric (GE) Aerospace has been selected to power the initial AMCA Mk1 prototypes, a high-stakes co

“The external boundaries of India as depicted are neither accurate nor authentic.” - These are the words that for decades Indian customs officials have stamped on every foreign atlas or map that has shown India’s borders differently from the official Indian claim. It is this set of words in a rubber stamp applied to thousands of books that becomes the perfect description of cartographic anxiety in action. Cartographic anxiety is a term attributed to a political scientist at t

On 7 August 2026, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement. Officially, it is described as a defensive pact, an armed attack against one member is considered an attack on the other two. Islamabad has been at equal pains to stress that the accord is not directed against any country in particular. For Pakistan, however, the significance of the pact is more than the language of collective defence. It offers Islamabad a chance to recover some d

After eight decades of domination and cracks starting to appear, we look at whether the reign of the greenback is eternal or merely very long. A CROWN NO ONE THOUGHT WOULD HOLD UP THIS LONG In 1944, delegates from 44 Allied nations met at a mountain hotel in New Hampshire to rewire the global economy, with the United States dollar as the anchor of international finance (pegged to gold at $35 an ounce) and every other currency fixed to it. At that time, it was a practical if n