Luncheon Discussion on the Strategic Importance of India (Austin)

Please join BENS members and guests for a luncheon discussion on the strategic importance of India—the seventh-largest country by area, the most populous country since 2023, and, since its independence in 1947, the world’s most populous democracy.

Its strategic importance stems from its status as a major global democracy, its vast market, booming economy, and key geographic position in the Indo-Pacific region, making it a crucial partner for creating a stable balance of power in Asia.

It plays a pivotal role in multilateral groupings like the Quad and BRICS and seeks to deepen its economic and defense ties—particularly with the United States—to advance technological and energy goals and maintain a strategic autonomy in a changing global order. Mr. Shidore will explain the role that India plays in current geopolitics.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Sarang Shidore is director of the Global South Program at the Quincy Institute. He was also a member of the adjunct faculty at George Washington University, where he taught a class on the geopolitics of climate change. He researches and writes on the geopolitics of the Global South, Asia, and climate change. Sarang has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Nation, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, Council on Foreign Relations, Energy Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, and others. He currently also serves as co-lead in the think-tank track (T20) of the G20 meetings. Prior to his current role, Sarang was director of studies at the Quincy Institute, senior research scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, and senior global analyst at the geopolitical risk firm Stratfor Inc. and previously also spent more than a decade in engineering and product management in the technology industry. His article �Why the Global South Won�t Quit Russia� explaining why rising states with expanding ambitions prefer three great powers to two, recently appeared in Foreign Policy.