Comment & Briefs

In the first round of promotions to the senior-most ranks of PLA, Xi Jinping signals building a younger, technological savvy military that needs to be honest and under the control to the party.

The Maldives presidential runoff election has been postponed indefinitely further widening the political dispute. The uncertainty highlights the challenges the young democracy faces, having held its first-ever multiparty election in 2008.

Gestures for peace talks in Manipur by the government indicate a willingness to engage in dialogue with armed groups, which in itself is a step towards reconciliation. Equally important is to ensure that these gestures are seen as a genuine desire to engage with the real issues.

This policy brief discusses some of the key trends in the Asia Pacific and sets out a long-term approach for India so as to maximise its security and developmental opportunities.

Though public-private partnerships is encouraged, privately the government continues to retain its monopoly on research and development and defence production through the DRDO, the ordnance factories and the defence PSUs.

Transforming the India-Nepal border from an ‘open border’ to a ‘closed border’ would severely damage the traditional socio-cultural and economic ties. It would be prudent to keep the border open but manage it more effectively through mutual cooperation.

The Urban Movement has a defined role in the political strategy and military strategy of the CPI (Maoist). The Maoists envisage that they would mobilise and organise the industrial workers.

The emerging doctrine of intervention is built around the ability of the international community, mainly the US-led western alliance, to impose its collective will in order to restore a deteriorating situation or to prevent a nascent conflict from burgeoning into full blown war with wider ramifications.

Creation of new states is likely to undermine India’s polity and governance and consequently the socio-economic progress. Cost-benefit analysis suggests that only in some respects the newly-created states have performed better.

The transitional politics in the Himalayan Kingdom has entered choppy waters with the breakaway radical faction of the Maoist party vowing to disrupt the election to a new constituent assembly slated in November this year.