India should rethink its Afghan policy India should continue to play the Afghan game but no longer by showering financial largesse but by deploying its skills of political manoeuvring. P. Stobdan April 28, 2015 IDSA Comments
Learning from Beijing; Tackling Delhi’s Air Pollution Challenge India and China could and should cooperate on environmental issues and specifically on clean urbanization because there is scope to develop a shared understanding of the problems and solutions. Avinash Godbole April 27, 2015 IDSA Comments
Iran-P5+1 Lausanne Framework: Issues and Challenges This Issue Brief looks back at the implementation of the JPOA and examines the extent to which the recent framework (JCPOA) agreed upon at Lausanne adheres to the letter and spirit of the JPOA, specifically as it relates to the pledge to treat the Iranian nuclear programme “as that of any non-nuclear state party to the NPT”. S. Samuel C. Rajiv , G. Balachandran April 23, 2015 Issue Brief
India’s Special Forces: An Appraisal At a time when the battlefield has been progressively transforming from the conventional to unconventional, the role of Special Forces will become critical in shaping its outcome. Conflicts in the past decade have established the primacy of such forces. Their role has evolved and today special operations are meant to be decisive and achieve strategic objectives. The Indian security establishment has also been taking notice of these changes and by and large making right moves. Amit Kumar April 2015 Journal of Defence Studies
Afghanistan and the Region Answers to all of Afghan problems can easily be found within the regional context. But the Afghan leadership is not likely to uphold the regional choice now. P. Stobdan April 20, 2015 Issue Brief
Fit for Command: Leadership Attributes for PSO–COIN Operations Peace support operations (PSO)–counter-insurgency (COIN) operations are different and often significantly more complex than conventional operations. Such a complexity places greater demand on military leaders both at the tactical and operational levels. The diversity of tasks and threats, primacy of politics and the decentralized nature of PSO–COIN operations have serious implications for both junior and senior leaders. Ivo Moerman , Paolo Tripodi April 2015 Journal of Defence Studies
Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents, edited by C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly Counter-insurgency, referred to as COIN with the usual military fondness for abbreviations, is commonly understood as a military-centric effort that seeks to overwhelm the insurgents with superior numbers, firepower, technology, and funds. In countries like India, central paramilitary forces are enjoined to do so. The central premise in traditional COIN discourse is that insurgency is a military problem requiring a military solution. Akash S. Goud April 2015 Journal of Defence Studies
Drone Warfare, by John Kaag and Sarah Kreps Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can carry a payload for the purpose of reconnaissance and surveillance; and those that are armed with missiles and bombs carry a payload for combat use. So, in drone warfare a human being, that is, a pilot flying an aircraft, is unnecessary and his life is not put in danger over the enemy territory. In military technology, drones represent precision weaponry and the rise of robotics. Drones were not armed at all till the 1990s. S.K. Dey April 2015 Journal of Defence Studies
Can War be Eliminated?, by Christopher Coker Imagine a book that talks of war, of all wars that have been fought in all of human history. One could be forgiven for assuming that such a volume would run into hundreds of volumes and hundreds of thousands of pages. On the contrary, Christopher Coker’s Can War be Eliminated? is probably the slimmest volume on the shelf on the subject of war. That is because in this book, Coker is not interested in engaging into a conversation about specific wars. He instead speaks of war as a phenomenon in itself, a phenomenon whose military nature is only an aspect and not the core. Vikas Jain April 2015 Journal of Defence Studies
Designing Sound Defence Offset Policies Policymakers need to ask themselves ‘What Really Makes Offsets Tick?’ in order to develop an objective framework based on sound principles repeatedly noticed in the offset regulations of ‘The Smarter Lot’ of countries and in the process avoid committing the seven ‘original sins’ that a poorly-designed offset policy may entail. Sandeep Verma April 17, 2015 IDSA Comments
