The Oil Market Challenge Over the last few years, it has been a roller coaster ride for the oil markets. From $110 a barrel in 2010, prices began dropping from June 2014 and finally dropped to below $30 a barrel in January 2016. Then from the end of the first quarter of 2016, prices started recovering and have been hovering around $50 a barrel since May Shebonti Ray Dadwal September 2016 Strategic Analysis
Importance of PM Modi’s Visit to Iran: Opportunities and Challenges for India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran is important in many ways. It came at a time when India is seriously contemplating activation of its ‘Look West’ policy and banking on Iran as a ‘gateway’ and provider of a corridor to Central Asia and Afghanistan. The visit sought to revitalise India–Iran bilateral relations which has passed through an uncertain phase during the last decade. M. Mahtab Alam Rizvi , Ashok K. Behuria September 2016 Strategic Analysis
India’s Foreign Policy Priorities and the Emergence of a Modi Doctrine India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often touted as India’s Deng Xiaoping, expected to lead the country on a path of economic reform and accelerated growth.1 While Modi rose to power on an economic mandate, it is his foreign policy that has received the most attention in the media. Modi has been criticised by the media, the public and the opposition parties for taking several overseas trips in his short tenure in office. Aakriti Tandon September 2016 Strategic Analysis
Flimsy Reading of History Fails to Predict Tibet’s Future Prof P. Stobdan (Senior Fellow, IDSA)’s reading of history fails to predict Tibet’s future from the beginning. The Dalai Lama has informed the Tibetan people about his thinking on the succession issue since as early as 1969. Later on September 24, 2011, the Dalai Lama took a definite position on the succession issue, where the Dalai Lama made it very clear that the decision to continue or not continue with the institution of the Dalai Lama lies with the Tibetan people. The real reason for ‘Younghusband’s visit’ to Tibet was not to lay a telegraph line. Tenzin Tsultrim September 2016 Strategic Analysis
Revival of the Russian Military: An Assessment Russia’s military intervention in Syria – its first beyond its immediate neighbourhood since the end of the Cold War – highlights the significant transformation that its armed forces have gone through. Rajorshi Roy August 31, 2016 IDSA Comments
Argentina’s Military Decline While the Argentinian military’s desperate state of affairs can be partly blamed on the country’s economic woes, a substantial portion of the blame must fall on the somewhat tense relationship between the military and the civilian government. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj August 30, 2016 IDSA Comments
A French Solution to India’s Defence Acquisition Problem The biggest lesson that India can borrow is France’s integrated and centralised procurement structure, which has the dual responsibility of arms acquisition and defence industrial development. Laxman Kumar Behera August 29, 2016 Special Feature
Rebuilding the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard A scramble for assets between the years 2013 and 2015 culminated in the procurement of a fleet of vessels that have restored a degree of capability and viability to the TTCG. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj August 26, 2016 IDSA Comments
NSG and China’s Grand Strategic Flip-flops: Some Plausible Explanations Given that the NSG may not be able to withhold the India membership question for long, in spite of China’s inconsistent positions, it would be unwise on India’s part to forfeit any advantage it has on the SCS issue. A. Vinod Kumar August 24, 2016 IDSA Comments
Japan’s Defence White Paper 2016: An Overview Furthering the premise of an increasingly severe security environment, Japan’s latest defence white paper has accorded relatively more space to its ‘strong concerns’ over China’s ‘active maritime expansion’ as well as progress in North Korea’s missile development programme. Titli Basu August 22, 2016 IDSA Comments
