With the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) taking over command from the US-led Coalition Forces in southern Afghanistan and the United States focusing on the eastern part of Afghanistan, particularly along the border with Pakistan, crucial questions have arisen regarding securing Afghanistan and its transition to democracy. How will NATO perform its new responsibilities and what will be its counter-terrorism strategies?

• Prasad P. Rane
• January 2007
• Strategic Analysis

It is now generally accepted that energy security could be significantly enhanced through sustained cross-border exchanges in many regions. In South Asia, however, regional energy security cooperation has seriously remained entangled in geopolitics. The possibility of overexploitation of natural resources such as coal, natural gas and oil reserves and the low level of political confidence in sharing hydro resources have placed serious obstacles to enhancing the level of energy security in the region.

• Mahendra P. Lama
• March 2007
• Strategic Analysis

• Alyson J. K. Bailes
• July 2007
• Strategic Analysis

The rise of a militant Islamist group calling itself Pakistani Taliban has drawn wider international attention in recent years. It has appeared as a serious internal security threat for the Pakistani state and as an external challenge for the Afghan government facing a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan. This article seeks to trace the evolution of 'Pakistani Taliban' and to isolate and analyse its ideological moorings and its political aspirations.

• Ashok K. Behuria
• September 2007
• Strategic Analysis

• Shanthie Mariet D’Souza
• September 2007
• Strategic Analysis

• Jason Miklian , Ingvill Håkås Tveite
• September 2007
• Strategic Analysis

King Gyanendra's takeover of absolute political power in February 2005 paved the way for the Maoists of Nepal and the political parties to fight together for democracy. In signing the 12-point agreement with the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), the Maoists even changed their strategy from a revolutionary agenda to a democratic one. The paper argues that the Maoist departure from the classical resistance model to the path of negotiation was tactical, to overcome the constraints on their way forward.

• Nihar R. Nayak
• November 2007
• Strategic Analysis

The Tamil minority in Sri Lanka have traditionally exerted a sympathetic pull on their co-ethnics in Tamil Nadu. This has inevitably influenced India's policy towards Sri Lanka. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 changed this pattern and the popular sympathy for Tamil militancy ebbed considerably in its aftermath.

• M. Mayilvaganan
• November 2007
• Strategic Analysis

Muslims comprise the second largest population after Hindus in South Asia. They are, however, not a monolithic community. The rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan and the official patronage it has got has an enormous political and security impact on the region. The terrorist campaign, sponsored by Pakistan and waged by Islamic fundamentalist groups in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan, has wide implications and poses a major threat to the region. Setting up an Islamic state and Jihad are the two objectives of all fundamentalist movements.

• Kalim Bahadur
• January 2006
• Strategic Analysis

Emergence of radical and extremist Islamist movements has proved to be a major source of instability in South and Central Asia. Radical Islamist groups emphasise that political power is indispensable to the establishment of an Islamic state. Though Muslims like non-Muslims have multiple identities – religious, ethnic, tribal, linguistic or territorial, the emphasis by the Islamists on the Islamic communal identity puts them in collision course with the state and other communities.

• K. Warikoo
• January 2006
• Strategic Analysis

India has to play a critical role in developing and thereby realising the full potential of Chabahar port which will significantly boost its image as a proactive regional power that is building such critical infrastructure not only to maximise its financial and strategic gains but also to propel regional growth and prosperity.

• Ashok K. Behuria , M. Mahtab Alam Rizvi
• May 13, 2015
• Issue Brief

India has to take a call on whether it would like to be a party to the CPEC, sit on the fence, or convey its concerns more emphatically in a bid to discourage China.

• Priyanka Singh
• May 07, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Confrontational politics is not new in Bangladesh. But it seems to have intensified in the last few months, especially after the unofficial main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), decided to launch protests on the first anniversary of the 2014 parliamentary elections in order to force the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government to step down. The BNP considers the January 5, 2014 parliamentary elections as illegal and hence the government in power as illegitimate.

• Anand Kumar
• May 01, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Nepal should raise Ecological Task Force (ETF) units to assist in tasks related to ecological reconstruction.

• P. K. Gautam
• April 29, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Fears about the Beijing-Rawalpindi axis scripting Kabul politics and thereby causing the complete marginalisation of New Delhi in the region appear far-fetched given the political dynamics of Afghanistan.

• Vishal Chandra
• April 28, 2015
• IDSA Comments

The US and other countries, including India, should open the floodgates of military and economic assistance to the Afghan state and help build the capacity and capability of its security forces and administrative machinery.

• Sushant Sareen
• March 24, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Mohamed Nasheed, in alliance with the Jumhooree Party, poses a formidable challenge to the Abdullah Yameen government. Yameen is using the judiciary as a tool to crush this challenge and further his own political objectives.

• Anand Kumar
• March 19, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Prime Minister Modi’s visit is likely to improve the atmospherics to a significant extent, introduce a positive vibe into the process of engagement and serve as a stepping stone for deepening the relationship further.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• March 12, 2015
• IDSA Comments

ADB’s yet another deferment of the decision on funding the DBD is a serious setback to Pakistan’s relentless efforts to obtain funds for constructing this mega hydro-power project on River Indus.

• Priyanka Singh
• March 03, 2015
• IDSA Comments

The thumb rule in making a policy U-turn is “minimise damage or maximise advantage”. What is extraordinary about the Modi government’s U-turn is that it maximises losses and minimises advantages.

• Sushant Sareen
• February 26, 2015
• IDSA Comments