ROUND TABLES / WORKSHOPS

On March 3, 2011, the Secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council H.E. Mr. Artur Baghdasaryan addressed a select group of scholars at the Institute and participated in the roundtable discussion that followed. He was accompanied by Armenia’s Ambassador to India H.E. Mr. Ara Hakobyan and a high level delegation from Armenia. The meeting was chaired… Continue reading Interaction with Secretary National Security Council of Armenia Mr. Artur Baghdasaryan

Mr. Peter Luff, MP, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, United Kingdom, delivered a special address at IDSA on February 8, 2011 on the potential of the Indo-UK strategic partnership. The session was chaired by Ambassador K.P. Fabian and a distinguished audience attended the proceedings. Ambassador Fabian welcomed the honoured guest and stated that… Continue reading Roundtable interaction with Mr. Peter Luff, MP, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, United Kingdom

Event Report Internal threats to national security have assumed centre-stage in the debates on Indian security. They are arguably more serious than the external threats. They have a pan-Indian presence and are no longer confined to India’s north and north-eastern frontiers. Therefore, tackling these threats is a common concern for the Centre and the States.… Continue reading Internal Security and Centre-State Relations

Speaker: Dr. Idesbald Goddeeris is an assistant Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, where he teaches courses on European and colonial history. He is also a senior member of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and coordinator of its Leuven India Focus. Dr. Idesbald Goddeeris, Coordinator of Leuven India Focus Chair of the… Continue reading Special Lecture by Dr. Idesbald Goddeeris on the Belgian crisis: from a local Brussels problem to a European and global issue?

As part of an initiative to reach out to Universities and Think Tanks across the world, a bilateral meet was organized by IDSA with the University of Warsaw, Poland. The two sides appreciated the EU’s support which had helped create a meaningful programme of cooperation between the two institutes, as well as its support to… Continue reading Roundtable with Polish delegation

Speaker: Dr. Alex Vines currently Director, Regional Security at Chatham House, LondonChair: Ambassador R. Rajagopalan, Member, IDSA Dr. Alex Vines, Research Director, Regional and Security Studies and Head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, presented at this roundtable, his findings on lessons from Asian national oil company engagement in Angola and Nigeria. In analyzing… Continue reading Seeking African Oil: Asian Oil Company Strategies in Nigeria and Angola

Session I Chair: Ambassador Lalit Mansingh At the outset Amb. Lalit Mansingh stated that the word “strategic” is of a problematic nature in the Indian context because India seems to use the word “strategic” to describe friendly relations with other countries. In his view only two countries have truly had a strategic partnership with India;… Continue reading Indo-US Strategic Partnership: A Way Ahead

Venue: Room 005, IDSAChair: Ms. Smita Purushottam Members of Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania visited the IDSA to engage in a discussion on a range of issues viz., neighbourhood relations, regional issues, regional organisations, trade, etc. This was the first Lithuanian parliamentary delegation to India. While calling the visit to India “historical”, the Deputy… Continue reading Lithuanian Parliamentary Delegates visit IDSA

US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, Michele Flournoy today delivered an address at IDSA on India-US strategic partnership and participated in the interactive session that followed with the scholars of the institute and select invitees. In her opening address, she underlined the importance of India in solving both regional and global problems. The depth of… Continue reading Round Table with Ms Michele Flournoy, US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy

In recent years Piracy off the coast of Somalia has come in the limelight. To delve deeper into this issue IDSA organized a roundtable on July 15, 2010. Capt. (retd.) Frank Charles van Rooyen, Senior Researcher (Security) at South Africa Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg and currently Visiting Fellow, IDSA made a presentation on Flotsam… Continue reading Flotsam and Jetsam, Towards Ending Somali Piracy: A South African Perspective

Chair: K. SubrahmanyamPanel: Air Cmde. (Retd.) Jasjit Singh, Rear Adm. (Retd.) Raja Menon, Brig. (Retd.) Gurmeet Kanwal Presentation: Brig. (Retd.) Rumel Dahia Brig. Dahia initiated the session by summarizing key ideas contained in the recent paper entitled “The New Rules of War” by John Arquilla. Following were identified as central postulates: US military spending is… Continue reading The Changing Nature of War

IDSA held an interaction with scholars from the Cross-Strait Interflow Prospect Foundation of Taiwan to discuss issues related to climate change, especially those concerning the Indian sub-continent and China. The scholars from Taiwan included Ms. Chang Hsueh-Ping, Mr. Liu Chin-Tsai and Mr. Lin Tzu-Chao. The team from IDSA included Col. (Retd.) P.K. Gautam, Dr. Uttam… Continue reading Interaction with scholars from the Cross-Strait Interflow Prospect Foundation of Taiwan

A 16-member delegation from the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), Tokyo, led by Major General Seiichi Takeuchi visited the IDSA on May 24 and held discussions on issues of mutual interests and concerns between India and Japan. The IDSA team was led by Dr. Thomas Mathew, Deputy Director-General of IDSA and consisted of members… Continue reading Visit of NIDS Delegation to IDSA

Climate change is on top of the international and national political and strategic agendas. Post Copenhagen climate conference of December 2009, this was the first event organised by the non-traditional security cluster at IDSA. Dr. Michael Köberlein, Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), India gave a 30-minute presentation on "Future of International Climate Regime" on 15th… Continue reading Future of International Climate Regime

The Canadian National Security Programme visited IDSA on February 25, 2010. The delegation comprising 20 members of Colonel and equivalent ranks was led by the Commandant, Brig. Gen. D.C. Hilton. It was accompanied by the Senior Mentor and the Academic Adviser. The Canadian Forces’ National Security Programme (NSP) is the senior professional military programme offered… Continue reading Visit of the Canadian National Security Programme

IDSA hosted an interactive discussion with Mr. Enrique Salem, President and Chief Executive Officer of Symantec Corporation, on the topic “The Information Security Agenda”. Mr. Salem posed the current challenges in the information security industry in the context of a “New Cold War” with attacks getting increasingly more sophisticated and purposeful. In his introductory remarks,… Continue reading Interaction with Enrique Salem, CEO of Symantec

On 13 August, 2009 a 10 member delegation from the UAE headed by Major General Mohammed Saeed Bin Maran Al Dhaheri, Commander Supply & Transport Arms, visited IDSA for an interaction. In his opening remarks, the Director General of IDSA briefed the delegation about the IDSA and its activities. DG, IDSA spoke on the overall… Continue reading Visit of UAE Military Delegation

A round table on “Engaging Iran: Opportunities and Challenges for India” was organized by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses on August 6, 2009 against the background of the recent visit by an IDSA delegation to Tehran. The main focus of the discussion was on recent developments in Iran, and how the new government… Continue reading Engaging Iran: Opportunities and Challenges for India

A delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway, visited IDSA on June 17, 2009. Mr. Atle Leikvoll, Deputy Secretary General, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs led the delegation from Oslo. The delegation was accompanied by the Norwegian Ambassador to India, Her Excellency Ann Ollestad. The topic of the interactive session was regional security in… Continue reading Interaction with the Delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses organised a round table interaction with Bolat Nurgaliev, Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on February 27, 2009. During his visit he deliberated upon important issues like the current status of the SCO, role of observer states and the question of the SCO’s expansion, economic cooperation… Continue reading Mr. Bolat Nurgaliev, Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The spectacular victory of the Awami League-led Grand Coalition in the Ninth Jatiya Sangsad elections held on December 29, 2008 marks a landmark development in the annals of Bangladesh. This offers an important opportunity for India to shore up the recent gains in bilateral relations and take them to a new trajectory. After a period… Continue reading Indo-Bangladesh: Opportunities Ahead

On 12 February 2009, the Military Affairs Cluster organised a Round Table to discuss Defence Doctrines. The aim was to reflect on implications of inter-relatedness of conventional and nuclear doctrines in the India-Pakistan context. A presentation was made by Ali Ahmed, Research Fellow, IDSA, to flag the issues and elicit views of the participants. Lt.… Continue reading Defence Doctrine in the Indo-Pak Context

IDSA organized a round table on the subject of bioterrorism on February 6, 2009. The main speaker at the event was Prof. Dean Wilkening, Director, Science Programme at Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University. In his presentation Prof. Dean pointed out that biological weapons would be suitable for the new brand of… Continue reading Bioterrorism led by Professor Dean Wilkening

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Parliament visited IDSA on January 12, 2009. Ms. Carina Hägg of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden led the delegation. The focus of the interactive session was regional security in South Asia. Dr. Arvind Gupta, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Chair at the institute, chaired… Continue reading Interaction with a Delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Swedish Parliament

His Excellency Mr. Lulzim Basha, the Foreign Minister of Albania led a high-level delegation to the IDSA on December 18, 2008 for an interaction with scholars on Indo-Albanian relations and the priorities of Albanian foreign policy. Mr. Basha was in India for the first time as the Foreign Minister of Albania on the occasion of… Continue reading His Excellency Mr. Lulzim Basha, the Foreign Minister of Albania

A Roundtable was held on December 11, 2008 against the backdrop of increasing demand for transport connectivity between India and Central Asia. Among the many points discussed the following stand out as important. Economic growth in the Asian region and emerging opportunities for interregional trade are creating a demand for viable transport connectivity, land-linking arrangements,… Continue reading Exploring India – Kazakhstan Transport Linkages

Dr. Marco Antonio Vieira, a Brazilian academician, currently Visiting Lecturer at Kings College London, visited IDSA on Monday, December 8, 2008 for a round table on "Brazilian foreign policy and IBSA." Dr. Vieira spoke on current Brazilian foreign policy trends. He opined that Brazil would like to be perceived as a responsible emerging power. Under… Continue reading Brazilian Foreign policy and IBSA

A strategic affairs workshop “Global Strategic Trends out to 2040” was held at The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) organized jointly by IDSA and DCDC (Developments, Concepts and Doctrine Center) of the Ministry of Defence (DoD), UK on 30-31 October 2008. The aim was to gain a firm understanding of global and regional… Continue reading Global Strategic Trends: Global Perspectives

The spate of terror attacks in various towns and cities across the country and the subsequent debate on combating such acts of terror have brought to fore the need for a co-ordinated pan-Indian response. In this context, the IDSA’s Internal Security cluster organised a Round Table titled ‘Do we Need a Federal Agency to Deal… Continue reading Does India Need a Federal Agency to Deal Effectively with Terrorism and Inter-State Crimes?

India will be hosting the third IBSA Summit on October 15, 2008 at New Delhi. Inaugurated in June 2003, the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Dialogue Forum is a unique model of trans-national co-operation, as the three countries come from three different continents and yet share similar worldviews and aspirations. Five meetings of the Trilateral Ministerial… Continue reading IBSA Dialogue Forum: Problems and Prospects

IDSA organised a strategic affairs workshop for members of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) UK, on September 29, 2008. The RCDS group consisted of 13 officers from the UK and other countries such as Australia, Finland, Lithuania, Japan, Rumania, France and Lebanon, and was led by Air Vice Marshal Andrew Walton who is… Continue reading Interaction with RCDS Delegation

A delegation of the International Committee of the Labour Party of Norway visited IDSA on September 10, 2008. The visiting delegation was headed by Mr. Olav Akselsen, Member and Speaker of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Parliament of Norway. The focus of the interactive session was India’s Foreign Policy, India’s stance on Climate Change… Continue reading Interaction With Norwegian Parliamentary Delegation

The discussion at IDSA on August 27, 2008 was part of the Institute’s ongoing research activities and was aimed at encouraging interactive dialogue among experts available on specific fields. The objective of the Round Table was to discuss the underlying and most compelling factors contributing to the resurgence of Russia and its implications. The Round… Continue reading Resurgence of Russia

Twenty one serial blasts rocked the city of Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008 in which nearly 50 people lost their lives and several others were wounded. Earlier on July 25, a series of eight low-intensity bomb blasts rocked Bangalore. In the next few days nearly 22 bombs that did not blow up due to defective… Continue reading Terrorism in the Hinterland