Smruti S. Pattanaik

India and Pakistan have signed a visa liberalization agreement and reactivated the joint commission during the last round of foreign minister level talks in Islamabad. These are significant steps forward but lot more can be done to make the process of bilateral engagement irreversible.

• Published: September 17, 2012
• IDSA Comments

As India plans to stay engaged in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Iran has emerged as a critical component of India’s Afghan policy. Despite US pressures, India needs to adopt a pragmatic approach vis-à-vis Iran and engage it effectively to protect its vital security and geo-political interests in Afghanistan.

• Published: August 24, 2012
• IDSA Comments

India’s policy in Afghanistan must be Afghan-centric and not be concerned about Pakistani efforts to gain strategic depth. In fact, by getting involved in Afghanistan, Pakistan is likely to endanger its own security and stability.

• Published: July 18, 2012
• Policy Brief

The India–Afghanistan relationship is not a simple bilateral engagement. India's Afghan policy is driven by, and is dependent on, many extraneous factors such as India's troubled relationship with Pakistan, its search for a land transit to Central Asia through Iran and Afghanistan and its concerns regarding use of Afghan territory by Pakistan to the detriment of Indian interests. Given the geographical constraints, India has relied on Iran for land access to Afghanistan. This has been complicated by Iran–US relations —the two countries with whom India shares common interests.

• Published: July 2012
• Strategic Analysis

Unless Pakistan opens the NATO supply route, it is very unlikely that the US will transfer any coalition support funds, thus creating serious trouble for the aid-dependent Pakistani economy.

• Published: June 06, 2012
• Issue Brief

India’s vote at the UNHRC may is the first step to send a clear message to the Rajapakse government that it cannot continue to postpone a political resolution of the Tamil issue.

• Published: April 09, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The failed coup indicates the penetration of Islamists and more specifically that of the Hizb ut-Tahrir whose main support base is among the educated youth, who are highly motivated and belong to affluent families in urban areas.

• Published: January 23, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Unwilling to allow the PPP an opportunity to gain a majority in the Senate, the Army and other political actors are willing participants in efforts to topple the government through the judiciary.

• Published: January 13, 2012
• IDSA Comments

It will not be fair to assess the success or failure of the Conference at this stage. The fact that there was an attempt to forge regional cooperation on Afghanistan was a positive but feeble step.

• Published: November 04, 2011
• IDSA Comments

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.

• Published: September 2011
• Strategic Analysis