Is Xenophobia Gripping South Africa? The recent spate of violence in South Africa appears to be rooted in the country’s failure to fully transform itself in the post-apartheid era. If the government fails to effectively address the issue of rising unemployment and widening socio-economic inequality in the country, the violence is likely to recur from time to time. Anand Kumar | October 04, 2019 | IDSA Comments
China’s Continuing Rare Earth Dominance Given China’s stated policy of using its rare earth dominance for strategic purposes, countries have been looking for ways to diversify their sources of supply. India too needs to acquire expertise in valorising rare earth minerals and shift to developing its downstream sector. Shebonti Ray Dadwal | September 27, 2019 | IDSA Comments
Additional Allocation for Defence – A Challenging Task for MoF The government seems to have little fiscal space for accommodating the demand of the armed forces for additional funds, given its quantum on the one hand and the state of its revenues on the other which are already quite stressed. Amit Cowshish | September 26, 2019 | IDSA Comments
The Next Step in Building India-China Military to Military (M2M) Relations The incremental and calibrated improvement in the India-China defence ties has withstood the test of time. The next step in building M2M relations could provide the required impetus to further accelerate the process of strengthening peace and stability along the LAC. Mandip Singh | September 16, 2019 | IDSA Comments
India’s ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Doctrine The Defence Minister’s recent statement on ‘no first use’ basically underlines the fact that India’s current nuclear doctrine is working well. Rajiv Nayan | September 16, 2019 | IDSA Comments
Sri Lanka at the Crossroads: Geopolitical Challenges and National Interests Sri Lanka has always featured in any discussion on Indian Ocean geopolitics. However, its geopolitical significance has increased manifold after the end of the long-drawn war that saw the defeat of the LTTE. The manner in which the war concluded brought international focus on the country, as some of the Tamil leaders sought international indulgence to ensure justice is delivered, and peace brought through war results in a meaningful political solution for the Tamils. Smruti S. Pattanaik | September 2019 | Strategic Analysis
New Directions in India’s Foreign Policy: Theory and Praxis One of the limitations of Indian foreign policy literature is its apathy towards employing novel approaches and methods. Though Indian foreign policy has gone through a dramatic transformation, particularly in the last two decades, the majority of scholarly attempts still spin around traditional theoretical paradigms. Thus, the academic enterprise on Indian foreign policy remained limited to the realist, liberal and at best post-colonial explanations. The inability of these distinct theoretical traditions to explain the complexity of Indian foreign policy created a void in the literature. Rajeesh Kumar | September 2019 | Strategic Analysis
Jordan and the Arab Uprisings: Regime Survival and Politics Beyond the State Carved by imperial powers, Jordan is a small state surrounded by a large but unstable neighbourhood. Among all the chaos, Jordan offers a semblance of stability sans durability owing to a strained economy, war across borders and the pressure of rehabilitating refugees. In a quest to have robust stability, Jordan has been constantly making efforts to embrace frequent rounds of reforms, active diplomacy and a flexible foreign policy. Lakshmi Priya | September 2019 | Strategic Analysis
Indian Ocean Perspectives: From Sea Power to Ocean Prosperity Long before the Atlantic and the Pacific became theatres for commerce and conflict, the Indian Ocean was home to considerable commercial and cultural intercourse. Most recent literature has, however, focused on maritime security and sea power while greater attention ought to be paid to economic development around the Indian Ocean. India’s plans for the development of the ‘Blue Economy’ augurs well for the region. Sanjaya Baru | September 2019 | Strategic Analysis
Actions Speak Louder than Words: China’s Consultative Peacekeeping in Africa Existing concepts (e.g. ‘non-interference’ and ‘pragmatism’) remain too vague to provide explanations for China’s increasingly assertive security policy. To avoid this pitfall, this article adopts a narrower focus on Chinese security policy towards Africa. Ivo Ganchev | September 2019 | Strategic Analysis
