Cold War

Mind in Motion: A biography of Francis Crick balances his life with science

A balanced yet probing biography traces Francis Crick's brilliant scientific leaps and human flaws, revealing the mind behind DNA's discovery without fully interrogating his more troubling ideas

The silent enemy redefines security for a world beyond the battlefield

A timely book by Arvind Gupta and Rajesh Singh expands the idea of national security beyond the military to include climate, technology, and economic vulnerabilities

The peacemaker the world forgot: U Thant's UN and the Cold War's edge

How a self-effacing, self-taught school headmaster from a small Burmese village became one of the most influential figures at the UN in the 1960s

Scott Anderson captures US' hubris, Iran's revolution in exceptional detail

For most Americans, the hostage crisis was the revolution's defining event

The CIA Book Club reveals how the West won minds behind the Iron Curtain

How the CIA, instead of pursuing scandalous swashbuckling interventions, smuggled books to weaken the Iron Curtain and offer Eastern Europe a glimpse of an alternative future

China says Hegseth touting Cold War mentality in calling it 'threat'

China on Sunday denounced US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling the Asian country a threat, accusing him of touting a Cold War mentality as tensions between Washington and Beijing further escalate. The foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference. The statement also accused the United States of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region. Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, it said, referring to the post-World War II rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Union. No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself, it said, alleging that Washington is also undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific. Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington will bolster its defences oversea

India's military expenditure was nearly 9 times that of Pak in 2024: SIPRI

India's military spending in 2024 was nearly nine times that of Pakistan's expenditure, according to a study released on Monday by a leading Swedish think-tank that comes amid growing tensions between the two countries over the Pahalgam attack. India's military expenditure, the fifth largest globally, grew by 1.6 per cent to USD 86.1 billion while Pakistan's spent USD 10.2 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The top five military spenders -- the United States, China, Russia, Germany and India -- accounted for 60 per cent of the global total, with combined spending of USD 1635 billion, it said. China's military expenditure increased by 7.0 per cent to an estimated USD 314 billion, marking three decades of consecutive growth, the study noted. The communist nation accounted for 50 per cent of all military spending in Asia and Oceania, investing in the continued modernisation of its military and expansion of its cyberwarfare capabilities

US, Russia describe talks on diplomatic missions as constructive & positive

The meeting of the US and Russian delegations in Istanbul followed initial talks in February, after the war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since Cold War

Russia transported Assad in most secured way, says Russian Deputy FM

The Kremlin said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin had made the decision to grant asylum in Russia to Assad

Americans freed alongside Russian assassin in biggest post-Cold War swap

After a year of secret negotiations, 24 prisoners were swapped: 16 moved from Russia to the West, and eight from the West to Russia

Putin warns US of Cold War-style crisis if missiles deployed to Germany

Earlier this month, the US said it would start deploying long-range missiles in Germany from 2026

Nato summit: US to deploy potent missiles in Germany, bolster Ukraine

The move would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987 but that collapsed in 2019

N Korea launches more trash balloons; South calls it 'irrational'

South Korea threatened on Tuesday to restart anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts in the latest bout of Cold War-style campaigns between the rivals after North Korea resumed its trash-carrying balloon launches. On Monday night, North Korea floated huge balloons carrying plastic bags of rubbish across the border in its fifth such campaign since late May an apparent response to South Korean activists flying political leaflets via balloons. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called North Korea's balloon activities a despicable and irrational provocation. In a speech marking the 74th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War, Yoon said Tuesday that South Korea will maintain a firm military readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocations by North Korea. South Korea's military said North Korea floated about 350 balloons in its latest campaign, and about 100 of them eventually landed in South Korean soil, mostly in Seoul and nearby areas. Seoul is about 40-50

S Korean group flies anti-N Korean propaganda leaflets across the border

A South Korea activists' group said Friday it again flew large balloons carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets toward North Korea, adding to a campaign that aggravated animosities between the rivals and prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along their border. The South Korean civilian group, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it floated 20 balloons attached with 3,00,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 US dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night. Pyongyang resents such material and fears it could demoralise front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken leader Kim Jong Un's grip on power, analysts say. After previous leafletting by Park's group and other South Korean activists, North Korean launched more than 1,000 balloons that dropped tons of trash in South Korea, smashing roof tiles and windows and causing other property damage. In ...

Vladimir Putin to keep demoted ally Patrushev on Russia's Security Council

Russia's Security Council, chaired by Putin, is a Kremlin consultative body responsible for managing and integrating national security policy

War minus shooting: Role of India in contemporary international trade

International trade right now is bringing back memories of the Cold War. What can be India's role in it?

India's role in easing fragmentation of global trade amid US-China tensions

Considering India's merchandise exports, the US is still our largest partner. But, it is India's imports that have solidified China as a significant trading partner

Help us avoid a 'new Cold War': China's Xi Jinping to France's Macron

Xi is in Paris on a state visit before heading to Serbia and Hungary in his first trip to the bloc in five years

India's China policy and Cold War dynamics

Former diplomat Vijay Gokhale's latest work, delves into the complex geopolitical landscape of 1949-59, exploring the intricacies of India-China relations, and the lessons learned

World's top spaceport faces hard times as Russia, Kazakhstan squabble

But plans for the site meant to help propel Russia's efforts in the new space age risk running off course