There is another indicator of the importance of this Persian Gulf route: Alexander the Great’s search for an alternative to it. After turning his army back from the Beas River (in present-day Punjab) to begin his march home, Alexander undertook a sea voyage from the Indus, along the Makran Coast, to reach the Persian Gulf. He had tasked two small

According to Krivenko, ACS numbers are possibly under 0.1 per cent of the entire conscription cohort, “but for some reason, military registration and enlistment offices regard this as a threat”, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine. Krivenko thinks that rising interest in the alternative service option is because of the “high risks for

“In my opinion, the situation will only get worse, and if obtaining alternative service now is a lottery, where you can either get it or not, then soon it will be completely impossible to do,” Bondarenko added (see below). Many young men who apply for Alternative Civilian Service (ACS) are members of the Council of Churches Baptists, which has

But India in 1991 was as open or closed as Japan, the US and China. The openness of an economy is measured by the share of its exports and imports in the GDP and for all these large economies, it ranged between 6% and 9%, similar to India’s. So, this argument was just a ploy for pushing the paradigm change in policies. Following marketisation, th

Geopolitical uncertainty adds another layer of complexity. While Russia’s trade dominance has diminished, Moscow may exploit the corridor to bypass Western sanctions, while Turkey could leverage its central position against European interests. Additionally, political instability in transit countries, ongoing territorial disputes, and shifting all