This monograph identifies the contexts which have shaped China's military strategy and doctrine. It argues that these have evolved through Party-Military relations as well as through the Chinese leadership's assessment of the international balance of power. In this framework, the monograph has traced the PLA's strategic and doctrinal transformation from a defensive one to one of limited offence, having global aspirations, affecting further changes in China's military strategy and doctrine.

• Prashant Kumar Singh
• 2016

• Jagannath P. Panda
• 2016

• Jagannath P. Panda
• 2016

The monograph seeks to determine the extent to which the US is a factor as an intervening variable in the complex relationship between the two countries. The study attempts to probe the research question as to how China perceives U.S policy towards India in particular, and whether growing Indo-US ties can affect China's security interest negatively.

• R N Das
• 2015

• Naval Jagota
• 2014

Strengthening people-to-people relations is the best way forward for enhancing India-Taiwan relations. The normalisation in the Cross-Strait relations provides an opportunity for India and Taiwan to further deepen their functional ties.In keeping with these ideas, this monograph presents a broad roadmap by retelling the forgotten stories of the past and providing a base for discussing the present and the future.

• Prashant Kumar Singh
• 2014

• S. D. Muni , Vivek Chadha
• 2014

• Prashant Kumar Singh
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to review the conceptualization and debates within China on its national interests and the threats perceived to these. It is hoped that an insight into how Chinese scholars and leaders view the current situation in their country and the world will help to better understand the motivations and constraints that China may face in formulating its policies – both domestic and foreign.

• Rukmani Gupta
• 2013

India-China relations may not be ideal in the narrative of a bilateral relationship between the countries. But given the complexity of the engagement and interaction between the two countries and taking into account the divergent political systems, the unresolved territorial issues, compulsions of geo-politics, the quest for resources and markets, and aspirations of the two countries for global influence and power, the relations between the two countries are certainly a matter of reassurance and optimism.

• R N Das
• 2013

China’s great power ambition and actions have been fuelled by its spectacular economic growth and military modernization. The need to sustain the economy and energy flow makes the East and South China seas vital to it. Its vulnerabilities also lie on its seaboard. To dominate the maritime spaces, it needs to own the contiguous airspace as well. The prescient Chinese leadership has transformed its Air Force into a strategic instrument of power, to protect its economic lifelines, geo-political interests and regional dominance.

• Diptendu Choudhury
• November 2020
• Strategic Analysis

Existing concepts (e.g. ‘non-interference’ and ‘pragmatism’) remain too vague to provide explanations for China’s increasingly assertive security policy. To avoid this pitfall, this article adopts a narrower focus on Chinese security policy towards Africa.

• Ivo Ganchev
• September 2019
• Strategic Analysis

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is now attaining centrestage in the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. Apart from France and the US, China holds significant interests in the WIO. China’s interests with the WIO states could be divided in four categories: dual-use infrastructure building, politico-diplomatic focus, connectivity-access and military activities. All four are interconnected and facilitate China’s desire to project power. For China, activities in the WIO serve the purpose of ensuring energy supplies, maintaining economic growth and securing military interests.

• Sankalp Gurjar
• September 2019
• Strategic Analysis

In the arena of international relations nation-states have been regarded as the primary actors. However, the constituent units of nation-states have also become active in forging relations with the political units which are located outside the national borders through ‘para-diplomacy’. Since the 1990s the states of Indian union have been playing a significant role in India’s foreign affairs. The Narendra Modi government in New Delhi has also established a ‘States Division’ in the Ministry of External Affairs.

• Ranjit Kumar Dhawan
• September 2019
• Strategic Analysis

There are several significant events which preceded China’s constitutional amendment of March 2018 that removed the presidential term limit boosting Xi Jinping’s standing as China’s prospective leader-for-life. Born to a revolutionary leader, Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping spent most of his life serving the government, gradually working his way up the hierarchy. His precedence in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and authority over all political institutions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have arguably placed him at par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

• Atmaja Gohain Baruah
• July 2019
• Strategic Analysis

Generations of scholars and analysts working on India-China issues will be grateful to Mr. Avtar Singh Bhasin for the extraordinary service he has done to them by bringing into the public domain, in five volumes, important texts on the subject—over 2,500 of them—including many that are still not declassified by the Ministry of External Affairs and transferred for public access to the National Archives of India. He was able to do so because he got ready access to material classified as ‘secret’ or ‘top secret’ in the papers lying with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

• Jayant Prasad
• July 2019
• Strategic Analysis

Regional strategic dynamics in South Asia is in a state of flux since the announcement of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China emphasises on the economic aspect of investment in infrastructures and energy projects, but strategic underpinning are very much apparent. China loan has created indebtedness in these countries and has helped Beijing to gain strategic foothold in the region which India considers as core to its security. India’s aid programme though focuses on the neighbourhood, it remains small compared to China and suffers from delivery deficit.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• May 2019
• Strategic Analysis

This article explains the Sino-Indian geo-economic competition in Bangladesh in the wake of the former’s launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. Beijing intends to fund various large-scale infrastructure projects in Bangladesh under the BRI which has prompted India to make its own offer of economic assistance to counter the Chinese initiative. The Sino-Indian competition has created challenges and opportunities for Bangladesh. Dhaka is pursuing a balanced policy to manage the competition and advance its own interests.

• Bhumitra Chakma
• May 2019
• Strategic Analysis

Pakistan’s largest donor has been the United States of America, granting around $ 70 bn in aid. In 2015, China, as part of its One Belt One Road global ambitions, promised Pakistan $ 46 bn (since revised to $ 60 bn), for a road running from its border to the port of Gwadar. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is being seen as a ‘fate-changer’ for Pakistan. CPEC could change Pakistan’s fate in more ways than one; this article explores the domestic and regional consequences of China’s involvement in Pakistan, and what this will mean for South Asia and for India.

• S. Akbar Zaidi
• May 2019
• Strategic Analysis

China’s growing stakes in the Indian Ocean, in particular the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) expanding profile in South Asia, has caused deep concern in India, where many believe Chinese naval deployments have shrunk New Delhi’s traditional sphere of influence. China’s inroads in India’s strategic backwaters— in particular, growing PLAN submarine forays—are viewed with suspicion in New Delhi, where many are convinced of the need for a counter-China strategy.

• Abhijit Singh
• May 2019
• Strategic Analysis

• Gulbin Sultana
• Issue Brief

• Mayuri Banerjee
• IDSA Comments

• M.S. Prathibha
• Issue Brief

• Abhishek Kumar Darbey
• Issue Brief

• Arnab Dasgupta
• Issue Brief

• Mayuri Banerjee
• IDSA Comments

• M.S. Prathibha
• Issue Brief

• Simran Walia
• IDSA Comments

• Arnab Dasgupta
• IDSA Comments

• Abhishek Verma , Arnab Dasgupta
• Issue Brief