Suicidal thoughts in college students is a universal public health agenda with complex psychosocial antecedents and protective variables. Emotional competence (EC), an ability to notice, analyze, and regulate emotions are linked to lower suicidal ideation, although the role of intellectual competence is debatable. This study investigates the relationships between suicidal ideation, emotional competence, and academic competence (AICS) in a college sample in Lucknow, India. 300 college students were included for this cross-sectional study with Standardized scales included the Suicidal Ideation Scale (SIS), an Emotional Competence Scale (EC), and the Academic Information Competence Scale (AICS) were used. Categorical associations were checked using chi square statistics with effect size estimates (phi), and independent samples t tests were planned under certain assumptions. The study found a significant correlation between SIS and EC categories (χ² = 150.792, p <.001, φ = 0.709), indicating that higher EC was linked to lower suicidal thoughts. There were no significant relationships between SIS and AICS (χ² = 8.87, p =.353) or EC and AICS (χ² = 5.903, p =.665). In this study, emotional competence appears to be a strong predictor of lower suicidal ideation, although intellectual competence does not show a meaningful link. The findings suggest the use of emotional skill training into campus mental health interventions.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is often framed within the received English common law system in Nigeria, with emphasis on arbitration, mediation, and conciliation as statutory or court-annexed procedures. Yet, long before the introduction of English law, indigenous Nigerian societies developed sophisticated mechanisms for managing conflict that prioritized restoration, social cohesion, and communal harmony. This paper examines ADR through the lens of Nigerian customary law. The study examined that customary ADR, characterized by flexibility, accessibility, voluntariness, and restorative outcomes, remains relevant and widely utilized, especially in rural and semi-urban communities. However, challenges including lack of formal enforcement, repugnancy tests, gender bias, and conflict with constitutional rights persist. The paper concludes that a pluralistic approach which integrates customary ADR into the formal justice system will enhance access to justice, decolonize dispute resolution, and preserve indigenous jurisprudence. Recommendations include statutory recognition, capacity building for traditional adjudicators, and harmonization with human rights standards.

The Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) developed by Buzan and Wæver (2003) has conventionally treated the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and West Asia as analytically distinct security complexes, connected only loosely through great-power overlay. The 2024 enlargement of BRICS which brought Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates into full membership alongside founding member India, with Saudi Arabia occupying an unresolved associate status has drawn actors from both complexes into a single multilateral institutional framework. This paper asks whether this development constitutes a genuine merger of the two regional security complexes, an instance of institutional overlay, or a distinct pathway of regional change that RSCT has not yet theorized. Using a qualitative, historical-comparative method that examines BRICS summit declarations, energy and connectivity linkages, and the persistence of intra-bloc security frictions, the paper argues that BRICS enlargement has produced institutional convergence without corresponding security convergence. This decoupling carries direct implications for India, which now occupies the institutional seam between both complexes and must manage this convergence while preserving its strategic autonomy.