IDSA Comments

Thailand is once again at the crossroads of political uncertainty and the entry of the military in the affairs of the state has created a sense of instability. On September 19, 2006, the Thai armed forces dismissed the Thai Rat Thai Party government and revoked the country's 1997 constitution even though acting Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra has announced a state of emergency in Thailand. General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, the army chief, has assumed prime ministerial powers till alternate political arrangements are made.

• Pankaj K Jha |
• September 21, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Terrorism has been wracking Jammu & Kashmir over the last two decades and the state has seen various shades of terrorist activities - from the violent aggressive phase involving fidayeen attacks on the camps of the security forces (SF) to the car bomb attacks that were witnessed last year to the present phase of grenade attacks, which can be considered a low cost but high impact option for the terrorists. Terrorist activities are presently more pronounced in the Kashmir Valley, whereas the number of terrorist initiated incidents have reduced in the Jammu region.

• B. S. Sachar |
• September 19, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

In his latest address to the Indian Council of World Affairs on India's regional policy, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran reflected that the government had a long-term vision of an integrated South Asia, in which geographical boundaries would become irrelevant. With this in mind, New Delhi has put in place a number of measures to help connect with other countries in the region. Significantly, the Foreign Secretary's speech highlighted India's changing policies towards China.

• Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy |
• September 14, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Anxiety and uncertainty are perceptible even as Bangladesh prepares itself for the next elections scheduled for January 2007. As the incumbent BNP government prepares to transfer power to a caretaker government by the end of October 2006, there is a sense of visible unease about Bangladesh's political future, as many issues pertaining to these elections remain unresolved. It appears that a few issues need an amicable settlement before the ruling party hands over power to the caretaker government.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik |
• September 14, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Despite the cease-fire, the Nepalese Maoists are busy collecting illegal taxes, besides carrying out abductions, extortion and forceful recruitment. They are consolidating their bases in urban areas where they had a very poor presence till April 2006, and are recruiting new cadres with the objective of setting up a communist society, if the peace talks fail. In the last four months, the strength of the Maoist armed cadres has increased from 29,000 to 35,000. While the Nepal Army is confined to its barracks, the Maoists are reportedly carrying their arms and moving freely.

• Nihar R. Nayak |
• September 05, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, popularly known as the "Tiger of Balochistan" in the early hours of August 27 in an army operation has ominous implications for the restive province. The tribal chief of the largest Baloch tribe, the Bugtis, was a strong proponent of Baloch autonomy, and had said that he had been a Baloch for several centuries, a Muslim for 1400 years but a Pakistani for just over fifty.

• Alok Bansal |
• August 29, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

On August 15, 2006, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement strongly protesting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's latest visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. Koizumi’s six consecutive visits since he took office in April 2001 have chilled Sino-Japanese relations, making the issue a major stumbling block in the smooth development of relations. The souring of Sino-Japanese relations over the last few years has been a result of the complex enmeshing of two broad issues: history and power shift.

• Abanti Bhattacharya |
• August 23, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Not many in the security establishment would like to believe so. A state known for its religious diversity and secular fibre, Kerala also has a sensitive communal melange with conflicting interests holding stake over its political and social institutions. To an average security analyst in Delhi, the ominous trends of subversive activities in this farthest nook would not be as apparent as similar events in Aurangabad or Meerut.

• A. Vinod Kumar |
• August 22, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Calling upon party members to study the Selected Works of Jiang Zemin (SWJZ) in line with a decision taken by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Hu Jintao termed the publication and issue of the SWJZ "a major event in the political life of the party and state." Earlier, an editorial in the People's Daily trumpeted the publication of the SWJZ as "offering a powerful weapon of ideology for China's construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and increasing the spiritual strength of Chinese people to build a well-off society in an all-round way." S

• Raviprasad Narayanan |
• August 21, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Since the middle of the 20th century, the Arab-Israeli wars have thrown up a number of military lessons. The most spectacular was a textbook pre-emptive counter air strike in 1967 by the Israeli Air Force (IAF), which destroyed or made non-operational the entire Egyptian Air Force. This demonstrated the need for gaining mastery of the air as a prelude to spectacular ground operations. At sea, a Styx missile fired by an Egyptian missile boat on the Israeli destroyer Eliat validated the idea of anti-ship missiles.

• P. K. Gautam |
• August 19, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Tajik President Emomali Sharifovich Rahmonov visited New Delhi during August 6-10, 2006 on a State visit at the invitation of Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The visit was preceded by the meeting of the bilateral Inter-Governmental Commission (July 31- August 1, 2006) and India-Tajikistan joint working group (JWG) meeting on counter-terrorism (August 3-4, 2006), both held in New Delhi.

• Ramakant Dwivedi |
• August 17, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

Pune, the Oxford of the East and the cultural capital of Maharashtra, is known for its educational institutions and manufacturing industries and as a home for retired service personnel. Lately, it has also become the hub for the automobile and IT sectors in western India. At the same time the city has now emerged as a link in the terrorist chain after the recent 7/11 Mumbai blasts.

• T. Khurshchev Singh |
• August 17, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

On July 27, 2006, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill HR 5682 for United States and India Nuclear Co-operation Promotion Act of 2006. This bill was submitted to the House by its International Relations Committee, after modifying the bill HR 4974 which was referred to the House by the US Administration. The House in an "up-or-down vote" passed this bill by a wide margin, with 359 members voting for and 58 opposing it. A number of amendments seen as killers were defeated on the floor of the House.

• Rajiv Nayan |
• August 05, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

In the post Cold War world, the term Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) emerged as a usable tool. This usage reached a crescendo with the 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis and the alleged existence of WMD in Iraq, which became the primary justification for the 2003 invasion of that country. The fear of WMD proliferation has generated grave concerns, given the increasing number and greater intensity of terrorist activities and their attempts to acquire WMD. Efforts to restrain the development and further spread of WMD have received greater focus in this environment of insecurity.

• Monalisa Joshi |
• August 01, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The conflict involving the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on two of its borders shows all signs of drawing the entire region into a new round of crisis. Though the current conflict may have been set off by years of hostilities between Israel and its regional adversaries, it is not a simple replay of the previous clashes.

• Rushda Siddiqui |
• July 26, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The Indonesian Parliament passed the Aceh Governance Bill on July 11, 2006. Dissemination of information about the bill started two days later to ensure that the peace building process, which came into force after the peace accord was signed with Free Aceh Movement (GAM, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) in Helsinki in August 2005, stays on track. One clause of the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) related to laying down of arms by GAM rebels and the passing of the Aceh Governance bill.

• Pankaj K Jha |
• July 26, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

As expected, a lesser-known terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the July 11 Mumbai blasts. After four days, the Lashkar-e-Qahhar claimed responsibility for the seven serial blasts that ripped through Mumbai commuter trains killing at least 228 and wounding approximately 900 people. It is believed that this is a sub-set of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). According to an email received by a TV channel, Lashkar-e-Qahhar has links with the LeT, which is an armed outfit of Markaz-Dawa Wal-Irshad, an Islamic fundamentalist organisation in Pakistan.

• Anil Kamboj |
• July 19, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The pro-democracy, anti-Musharraf movement launched by the combined opposition in May 2006 will once again put on trial the strength and determination of the people of Pakistan to snatch power from the clutches of the military. The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), a conglomerate of 15 parties, has demanded the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz by July 31, 2006, failing which a vote of no-confidence would be moved against the Musharraf regime. The demand was made in a resolution adopted by the Alliance on July 2.

• Sumita Kumar |
• July 19, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The management of India's international border along its North Eastern States has remained a crucial and complex issue. In an age of increasing interdependence, threats from unconventional sources pose a greater challenge to the country's security. An unmanaged border accentuates such threats by providing easy points of ingress and egress. Travel along India's borders with Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan highlights the porous nature of these borders, which pass through difficult terrain of forest, rivers and mountains and make the task of guarding all the more challenging.

• Shanthie Mariet D'Souza |
• July 18, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments

The July 11 bombing in Mumbai, which left 200 dead and 700 injured, is the deadliest terrorist attack in India this year. It was a systematic and well planned attack engineered between 6.24 pm and 6.35 pm on the Western Railway line during peak-hour when office-goers were returning home.

• T. Khurshchev Singh |
• July 18, 2006 |
• IDSA Comments