Events

FACT & FICTION

INDIA: The Eastern Front

Wednesday, 5 March | 3pm UK | 8.30pm India | 9pm Bangladesh | 9.30pm Myanmar

ONLINE

What have India's relations with its eastern neighbours — Bangladesh and Myanmar — been in the past, and in recent times? Focused on the recently published India's Near East: A New History (2024), this event will discuss India's connections, engagement, foreign policy, and geo-strategic interests encompassed in her 'Act East' policy, in a region of interest to China as well.

SPEAKERS: Sreeradha Datta (@sreeradhadatta) is Professor of International Affairs, O. P. Jindal Global University (Sonepat) and author of Act East Policy and Northeast India (2021); Dr Md Shariful Islam is Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Rajshahi, and author of Fifty Years of Bangladesh-India Relations: Issues, Challenges and Possibilities (2021); Dr Avinash Paliwal (@PaliwalAvi) is Reader in International Relations, SOAS University of London, and author of India's Near East: A New History (2024); Khin Zaw Win is Director, Tampadipa Institute (Yangon), and has been engaged in building a plurilateral Myanmar. 

CO-CHAIRS: Abhilash Puljal (@puljal), an LSE alumnus, is Director, LSE Research and Education Foundation India (LSEREF-India);  Dr Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

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This event is part of our Fact & Fiction series, and is in collaboration with the LSE Research and Education Foundation India (LSEREF-India).

Please e-mail southasiacentre@lse.ac.uk to register free; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

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FACT & FICTION

NAVIGATING GEOPOLITICS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN 

Thursday, 13 March | 3pm UK

ONLINE

As the Indo-Pacific becomes increasingly significant in global geopolitics, dominance and control of the Indian Ocean — long coveted by many — is once again centrestage. Centred around the recently published The Contest for the Indian Ocean and the Making of a New World Order (2024), this discussion looks at the many forces seeking to (re)define the world order.    

SPEAKERS: Dr Darshana Baruah (@darshanabaruah) is Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy at The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)-Singapore, and author of The Contest for the Indian Ocean and the Making of a New World Order (2024); Dr Nicolas Blarel (@nicoblar) is Associate Professor of International Relations, Leiden University, and co-author of Strategic Communication in the Indo-Pacific: Signalling EU-Naval Commitment to the Region (2024); Dr Alice Engelhard (@AliceEngelhard) is Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE; Dr Jivanta Schottli (@JivantaSchottli) is Assistant Professor in Indian Politics & Foreign Policy, Director of Ireland India Institute at Dublin City University, and Editor of Martime Governance in South Asia and the Indian Ocean (2022).

DISCUSSANT: Dr Rohan Mukherjee (@rohan_mukh) is Assistant Professor in International Relations, Deputy Director of LSE IDEAS (LSE's Foreign Policy Think Tank), and author of Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Relations (2022).      

CHAIR: Dr Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

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Please e-mail southasiacentre@lse.ac.uk to register free; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event.

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NEPAL: Disaster, Labour Justice & Rights

  Wednesday, 19 March 2025 | 3pm UK | 8.45pm Nepal

ONLINE

How do global disasters like the Covid-19 pandemic intensify injustices towards historically disadvantaged communities like informal workers and labour migrants? Focusing on Nepal, this panel discussion, drawing on an LSE-AFSEE research project on innovative forms of solidarity and rights-based movements as competing frames to the health security measures introduced by various governments, as newer political strategies are invented to deepen the prospects for just and democratic recovery from the pandemic. 

PROJECT MEMBERS: Narayan Adhikari is Country Director, Accountability Lab Nepal; Kripa Basnyat (@kripa_basnyat) is National Project Officer, 'Empowered Women, Prosperous Nepal' (EWPN), International Labour Organisation, Nepal; Flora Cornish (@FloraCornish) is Professor in Research Methodology, LSE; Dr Nimesh Dhungana (@NimeshDhungana) is Lecturer in Disasters & Global Health, Human Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester, and Lead Investigator in the LSE-AFSEE Project 'Demanding a "Just Recovery" from Below'.

DISCUSSANTS: Neha Choudhary (@neachoudhary) is a Development Practitioner at the International Labour Organisation in Ethiopia (previously at ILO Nepal) and is particularly interested in labour migration; Dr Banhishikha Ghosh (@BanhishikhaGho1) is Lecturer in Health & Social Care, University of Sunderland (London), and has published on Covid-19 induced hardships for migrant workers in India.

CHAIR: Dr Nilanjan Sarkar is Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE).

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Please e-mail southasiacentre@lse.ac.uk to register free; the livestream link will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. 

Banner image © Badal Gyawali, Janakpur, 2018, Unsplash.

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