The Jamal Khashoggi Affair Riyadh committed a crime and blunder; its communication strategy, so far, has been an unmitigated disaster. MbS is facing a challenge, to put it mildly. K. P. Fabian October 23, 2018 IDSA Comments
India-Russia Summit: Reading Between the Lines The 19th bilateral summit has left a mixed feeling about the current state of the Indo-Russian relationship and its future prospects. Aleksei Zakharov October 18, 2018 IDSA Comments
How India Sees the World: Kautilya to the 21st Century, by Shyam Saran One of the first lessons a student of international politics is introduced to is that foreign policy is a compendium of continuity and change, of static and dynamic co-existence, mired in the national interest of the nation state. In the Indian context, in particular, the first political theorist the same student studies is the realist ancient thinker Kautilya. These elementary but indispensable lessons form the basis of Shyam Saran’s riveting work, How India Sees the World: Kautilya to the 21st Century. Shrabana Barua October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Repatriation of Rohingya Refugees: An Aberration on India’s Humanitarian Legacy To force all Rohingyas to return on the grounds of “threat to security” is against India’s humanitarian heritage. The government and its agencies are capable of sifting out Rohingya elements who might actually have links to terror organisations from the rest of the group. D. Padma Kumar Pillay October 16, 2018 IDSA Comments
United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Causes for Failure and Continuing Relevance Decades after the deployment of the first peacekeeping operation (PKO)—United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)—in 1948, the United Nations (UN) cannot boast of too many successes. The continued relevance of UN PKOs has thus come under criticism. In order to determine whether UN PKOs are still relevant, it is necessary to obtain a clear understanding of the reasons/factors for their success and failure, and thereafter assess their performance. A.K. Bardalai October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
The Soul of Armies: Counterinsurgency Doctrine and Military Culture in the US and UK, by Austin Long This book is a major contribution towards the field of military culture, one which has had shortage of literature traditionally. While the book primarily dwells on the counter-insurgency doctrine and military culture in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), it certainly provides modular lessons for counter-insurgency operations and military organisational behaviour throughout the world. Austin Long’s analysis tries to answer a key question: why are some armies better at counter-insurgency than others? Vivek Mishra October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
The People Next Door: The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan, by T.C.A. Raghavan ‘The People Next Door’ is the name of a 1968 television (TV) series made into a 1970 Hollywood movie, a 1996 TV film, a 2008 novel, again a 2016 TV film, and, in the case of the book being reviewed, a non-fiction historical book. When we spend time in observing neighbours, the act has a voyeuristic feel. Ghanshyam Katoch October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Emerging Contours of Maritime Security Architecture under the Belt and Road Initiative The revival of the centuries-old ‘Silk Road at Sea’ into a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is an integral part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Chinese White Paper on its vision for enhancing maritime cooperation broadly confirms this perception, since it considers maritime security assurance as the lynchpin of MSR initiatives. As its trade and overseas economic interests have been constantly growing, Beijing’s strategic concern about protection of these interests has magnified. Abhay Kumar Singh October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Defending Japan: Reviewing the 2018 White Paper Three key developments unfolded in Japan in August 2018: the Ministry of Defence (MOD) released its annual Defence White Paper; requested a 2.1 per cent increase in the 2019 budget; and instituted an Exploratory Committee on the Future of Self Defence Forces (SDF) with the objective of reviewing the current National Defence Program Guidelines (NDPG) and the Mid-Term Defence Program (MTDP). Analysing these developments in the backdrop of Prime Minister Abe’s top priorities—managing the United States (US)-Japan alliance under the Trump Presidency and delivering on the ‘great responsibility’ of redefining Japanese post-war security orientation—unpacks Tokyo’s key challenges. These are, essentially, balancing between sharing greater burden within the alliance framework to ensure regional security on one hand, and weighing regional sensitivities and deeply fractured domestic constituencies on the other. Titli Basu October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Japan’s Self-Defense Forces: A Decade after Reorganisation Japan banks heavily on her security alliance with the United States (US) to ensure availability of requisite military capability in the region. China’s economic and military capabilities have grown in the last two decades, closing the gap with the US. With diminishing differential, especially with respect to China, the US’ deterrence power has gradually declined. Under these conditions, Japan has to develop Self-Defense Forces (SDF) capabilities to ensure that it, in combination with its alliance partner, the US, is able to meet national security challenges. Kishore Kumar Khera October-December 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
