Sarthak Kathayat

The main and the foremost objective of India’s Foreign Policy are to secure its own national interest. In a dynamic world, Indian foreign policy is geared up to be proactive, flexible and at the same time pragmatic so as to respond to the evolving situations. India is a maritime nation not only because of its historical traditions but by the virtue of the fact that its geophysical composition and geopolitical situation makes it dependent on seas as much as any other island nations like Sri Lanka or Maldives. With the rise of China as a superpower and the rapid expansion of its footprint in the Indian Ocean Region, Indian foreign policy towards this region has assumed more attention of Indian leadership over the past few years. Beyond commercially investing in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, China has also acquired a military outpost in Djibouti. In a bid to manage the growing clout of China’s economy and diplomacy in the Indian Ocean Region, Indian leadership has now started extending its reach to the Island states in the region. Vanilla Islands is one such group of Island states to which India has now extended its reach. It is a collective of island states in the South Western Indian Ocean which includes The Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mayotte, Reunion and Seychelles. Taking the lead in developing the concept of ‘Blue Economy’, these Island states have made them special partners for India. The impact of their large number on the voting patterns in various multilateral forums also makes them states of interest to India. Hence, it is of imperative concern to understand the importance of engaging with these Island states. The purpose of this research is to strategically analyze the dynamics in Indian foreign policy vis-à-vis Vanilla Islands given the growing importance of the maritime domain for India. The paper also highlights the Chinese factor in the dynamics of
Indian foreign policy in the Indian Ocean Region. Attempts have also be made to offer suggestions that may aid in improving interaction with these Island states.

United States' hegemony has been the most peculiar feature of the post-Cold War international order. In the view of the United States primacy in a unipolar system that was created in the aftermath of Cold War, the United States enjoyed an unprecedented dominance over the material resource that it claimed. Not only material but the West, particularly the United States enjoyed hegemony over the information flow as well which led to the demand of a new world information communication order or as it came to be known ubiquitously as NWICO by the third world nations. However, the reality now stands challenged with the rise of China. Both the countries have been able to utilize the soft power of media within and outside their boundaries and the agenda setting theory have proved beneficial for both the sides. As the United States struggles to maintain its presence in Asia, it is of imperative concern to understand the dynamics of the United States interaction with Asian states like China, India and Pakistan which could ultimately tip off the balance of power. The purpose of this research is to study the dynamics of the afore mentioned relationship from the perspective of media. Hence, this research analyzes the portrayal of the United States in the press of China (China Daily), India (The Hindu) and Pakistan (Dawn). This research paper uses the content analysis method to analyze the information pieces which includes editorials, news stories and opinion articles from December 2017 onwards till February 2018. The themes that are developed for the purpose of this study are: United States economic policies and trade practices, United States foreign policy and international relations, Donald Trump's leadership and related controversies and Trump's administration and United States politics. This research proves media as an equivalent to military might and provides another perspective to the balance of power theory in contemporary times.

The ideas of political and legal accommodation of ethnic diversity first emerged in the West as an agent for replacing older forms of citizenship with the new ideas of democratic citizenship. Multiculturalism has been the central idea of the world in which we live today. However, scholars like Will Kymlicka have often argued that since the mid 1990s, we have seen a back lash and retreat from multiculturalism-and even a call for the return of assimilation model. In the last few decades, the discourse about the failure of multiculturalism has percolated in the mainstream political discourse of many nation-states of Europe. Events like 2005 riots in Paris as well as series of terrorist attacks have led to resentment against the multicultural policies in Europe, making France no exception. Immigration and Islam had been the important factors in making multiculturalism in France more of assimilation of diversified culture. The long touted Republican philosophy has been fundamentally successful in keeping the ethnic demands and claims, for group rights, away from the political sphere. Citizenship has now closely been linked to nationality in France. Hence, it is of imperative concern to understand the consequences of these policies on the minorities. The purpose of this research is to find out how far the theory of multicultural society has worked in practice in the French context. This paper highlights the history of France as a multicultural nation and the dynamics of the shift from multicultural policies to the Republican model of citizenship. Attempts are made to focus on the impact of French citizenship model on minorities in different spheres of politics, education, religion and sports.

India and China are concerns for each other. Apart from international politics, it is the South Asian politics that trigger India and China face off on border issues. Sino-Indian relations are in a state of disrepair at the end of 2017, is not news. If 2016 was marked by China’s decision to block India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, 2017 was defined by an extended military confrontation in the Doklam plateau (Mohan, 2017). The issue was reported extensively on both traditional and new media. The purpose of this research was to study how the news websites DD News(India) and People’s Daily (China) of democratic and Communist regimes reported the Doklam issue. This research paper used the content analysis method to analyse the news stories published from June 16 onwards till September end. Some of the categories that this paper attempted to study were: lead (how they put up the issue), number of news stories appeared, videos and graphics used in the news stories.