How will ballistic missile defences affect nuclear deterrence? This is a question as old as the nuclear revolution but has attained significance in the current security environment wherein nuclear-armed states are increasingly pursuing development and deployment of BMD and their doctrinal integration with strategic forces and postures. Yet, the advent of BMD is bereft of conceptual clarity as their effects on nuclear deterrence is yet to be aptly understood.
It may seem premature to discuss the advent of an illiberal global order, however, the numerous catalytic events of recent years and the apparent decline of American heft in shaping global norms and structures might indicate that the international system is on the cusp of a major transformation.
Through effective contagion mitigation and disease control strategies, India has managed to confine the COVID-19 to a minuscule section of the population, though at great economic cost.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar-IDSA, Mr. A. Vinod Kumar's chapter ‘The Struggle Between Political Idealism and Policy Realism: The Making of India’s Nuclear Policy’ has been published in the edited volume ‘The Interface of Domestic and International Factors in India’s Foreign Policy’, published by Routledge: Taylor and Francis (March 2021).
Biden has set an ambitious agenda to reinvigorate US global leadership by pursuing a proactive grand strategy. He will, however, have to reckon with the legacy of Trumpism that has made a significant imprint on American foreign policy.
The era of non-alignment provides immense insights on how visionary leadership seeking to influence international politics could develop ideational frameworks to propel the grand strategy of their choosing.
Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Mr. A Vinod Kumar's commentary on China, titled ‘China is becoming the new pariah,’ has been published in ‘The Week’ on June 24, 2020.
Not aggression, but responsibility and compensation was expected of a great power with parentage of a pandemic, the article points out, arguing for a global coalition of democracies to discipline China and rein in its aggression.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the final months of 2019 in China had led to a global pandemic with the disease-causing pathogen, the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2), spreading virulently to almost all habitable land on Earth within a matter of 2-3 months. Even over six months after its first imprint in Wuhan, the pathogen remains unconquerable with over 4 million being infected and more than three lakh people dead.
It might be difficult to prove any weaponisation intent or man-made origins to the SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the mass deaths and disruption caused by the virus forebodes imminent exploitation of biological agents for political ends.
Virus As Bio-Weapon: Contested Origins of Novel Coronavirus
It might be difficult to prove any weaponisation intent or man-made origins to the SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the mass deaths and disruption caused by the virus forebodes imminent exploitation of biological agents for political ends.