GeoPrism

Decoding the World’s Decisions

Author: Vikas Bhardwaj
Dr. Vikas Bhardwaj is a scholar of international political economy, holding a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His work focuses on economic statecraft, sanctions, energy geopolitics, and global economic governance. He has worked as a researcher with numerous institutions, including the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), contributing to multiple policy evaluation projects commissioned by Government of India ministries. Bhardwaj holds nine academic degrees and has published in international peer-reviewed journals on the Russian economy, geopolitical conflict, and shifting global power dynamics.
  • Was Khamenei’s Funeral Iran’s New Instrument of Strategic Diplomacy?

    Was Khamenei’s Funeral Iran’s New Instrument of Strategic Diplomacy?

    On 28 February 2026, an opening strike in the joint US-Israeli campaign that came to be called Operation Epic Fury killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s second Supreme Leader, along with his wife, mother, daughter, son-in-law and infant granddaughter, at the Office of the Supreme Leader in Tehran. The war that followed…

  • Did Trump Just Rebuild the Deal He Destroyed?

    Did Trump Just Rebuild the Deal He Destroyed?

    Eight years of maximum pressure, a war, and a dead supreme leader later, Washington’s framework with Iran looks a lot like the bargain it walked away from in 2018. On June 14, 2026, Donald Trump signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Geneva. Within hours,…

  • Has Russia’s War Created a More Nuclear and Less Dependant Pyongyang?

    Has Russia’s War Created a More Nuclear and Less Dependant Pyongyang?

    When Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on 8 June 2026—his first overseas trip of the year—Kim Yo Jong had already demolished the diplomatic ground beneath him. Two days earlier she declared North Korea’s nuclear status an “irreversible and final conclusion,” dismissing denuclearisation as an “anachronistic dream.” Five days prior, Kim…

  • The Billion-Dollar Conflict: Does America Have a Presidential Ethics Crisis?

    The Billion-Dollar Conflict: Does America Have a Presidential Ethics Crisis?

    The Pentagon’s $9.7 billion Dell contract is not, at its core, a story about corruption. It is a story about structural transformation—about how the ethical firewall separating public office from private wealth in the United States has been quietly dismantled, not by statute but by normalization. When a sitting president…

  • War Under Sanctions: Can Russia’s Economy Sustain Its Wartime Resilience?

    War Under Sanctions: Can Russia’s Economy Sustain Its Wartime Resilience?

    For three years after February 2022, Russia’s wartime economy seemed to defy every Western expectation. GDP contracted a modest 1.4 per cent in 2022 — against the IMF’s initial projection of 8.5 per cent — and then surged: 4.1 per cent in 2023, 4.3 per cent in 2024 . Moscow…