For a long time, it was common practice to term the rate of economic growth in India the ‘Hindu rate of growth’—a derogatory term for the low growth rate of the economy.

• Hari Bansh Jha
• January 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The new radicals in Pakistan have challenged the old Islamists as represented by the religious political parties on the nature of state and the means to capture state power. These new radicals reject the ‘bottom up’ approach followed by the traditional Islamic political parties and prefer a ‘top down’ approach. Their ideological inspiration and reference point is Afghanistan under Taliban.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• July 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The historical baggage weighing on the Russo-Afghan relationship is apparently in the process of being jettisoned. The two countries have been cautiously reaching out and engaging each other for quite some time now. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's state visit to Moscow on 20–21 January 2011 – the first by an Afghan head of state in more than two decades – could be perceived as a major step forward.

• Vishal Chandra
• July 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The subject assumes significance in view of the politics evolving around the idea of negotiating peace, especially with the Taliban, as the West plans to withdraw bulk of their troops by 2014. Though often regarded as flawed, ill-timed, regressive, wobbly, dangerous and unworkable, the idea has nevertheless come to dominate the discourse on the Afghan war. However, principal Afghan opposition forces and networks operating from Pakistan continue to publicly rebuff and mock at the government's initiative.

• Vishal Chandra
• September 2011
• Strategic Analysis

India shares 4095 kilometres of land and river boundaries with Bangladesh. The border is porous, criss-crossed by rivers and hilly and mountainous terrain which has made the guarding of this border extremely difficult. Border is a political construction. People living in the villages adjacent to the border do not subscribe to any concept of nationality or recognise the boundaries of the nation state. For the people living in the ‘borderlands’, a non-existent line bars them from leading the natural existence they have led for centuries.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• September 2011
• Strategic Analysis

Much water has flown down the Mahaveli since the elimination of V. Prabhakaran and decimation of LTTE, the terror outfit he led, in Sri Lanka in May 2009. President Mahinda Rajapaksa cashed in on the situation well; he called for a new presidential election two years before expiration of his term and won it convincingly in January 2010. His party secured an easy and emphatic victory in the subsequent parliamentary elections, short of a two-thirds majority, in April 2010.

• Ashok K. Behuria
• September 2011
• Strategic Analysis

In the aftermath of the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust, during which war crimes were committed on an unprecedented scale, the international community came together to declare ‘never again’ and set up the United Nations. Governments agreed that they would cooperate to prevent the commission of genocide and punish the perpetrators.

• Satish Nambiar
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The strategic outlook of the political, bureaucratic and military elites in Pakistan was shaped by historical exigencies, geopolitical location, Pakistan's self-perception, and its Islamic credentials. Pakistan's military-dominated leadership formulated strategies towards regional and extra-regional powers based on its threat perceptions. The strategies adopted have not necessarily resulted in fully achieving the objectives for which they were formulated.

• Sumita Kumar
• May 2011
• Strategic Analysis

Various reports on ‘Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan’ produced by the US Department of Defense, 2010 (in coordination with some other departments) have struggled to paint an optimistic picture of the Afghan situation, to maintain the morale of the troops. However, a tacit admission that the Afghan War is not going anywhere can be deciphered from the cautious language used in these reports.

• Ashok K. Behuria
• May 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The last few years have witnessed an incredible change in global communications as well as politics. The proliferation of 24/7 news channels, the spread of the Internet and the ready availability of mobile phones with digital cameras are having a profound impact on the international media and on the manner in which governments formulate their media strategies. At the same time, global issues like terrorism, climate change or even multilateral trade negotiations have come to be closely intertwined with the domestic political agenda.

• Navdeep Suri
• March 2011
• Strategic Analysis

China may or may not succeed in transforming Africa into a substitute market. If it does, the bilateral trade relationship is likely to become more unbalanced and tilted in its own favour leading to greater exploitation of Africa.

• Anand Kumar
• September 18, 2018
• IDSA Comments

The forthcoming presidential election is a contest between Yameen’s pledge to bring about a transformational change with mega-projects and Solih’s pledge to end presidential tyranny, injustice and corruption

• Gulbin Sultana
• September 17, 2018
• Issue Brief

Whenever a civilian government has attempted to improve relations with India, it has either had to backtrack on promises made or the Pakistan Army ensures that, through its actions at the LoC and inside J&K, these promises stand scuttled.

• Deepak Kapoor
• August 08, 2018
• IDSA Comments

With the ever increasing support and swelling number of protesters, Pashteen changed the name of the organisation from the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement to Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a Movement for the Protection of Pashtuns.

• Zainab Akhter , Yaqoob-ul-Hassan
• May 04, 2018
• IDSA Comments

The purposes of the visit have been achieved and a new phase of relationship has begun with India acknowledging Nepal as an ‘equal partner’.

• Nihar R. Nayak
• April 11, 2018
• IDSA Comments

The current policy is premised on the understanding that unless India hurts the principal architect of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, that is, the Army, terrorism would continue unabated.

• Vivek Chadha
• March 22, 2018
• Policy Brief

The four conditions for acquiring Indian citizenship and new regulations to ease the travel abroad of Tibetan refugees could cause the dismantling of Tibetan settlements which are the nerve centres of the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization.

• Yeshi Choedon
• February 23, 2018
• Policy Brief

Political instability in the wake of the arrest of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in a corruption case will not portend well for Bangladesh and the region.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• February 15, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Not intervening at this stage would be viewed by the people of Maldives as an abdication of responsibility by India.

• Rumel Dahiya
• February 09, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan’s determination to build the Diamer Basha Dam (DBD) project with indigenous funding may prove even more difficult than obtaining foreign funding.

• Priyanka Singh
• January 23, 2018
• IDSA Comments