Exploring Risks and Vulnerabilities: An Alternate Approach to Maritime Security Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region Maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has become a central consideration. Shared risks and common vulnerabilities for state and non-state actors, generated by traditional and non-traditional security challenges, converge to a significant extent at sea. Risk-based approaches offer the potential for regional and extra-regional actors to engage in a constructive and non-confrontational dialogue that can assist collective security cooperation. Lee Cordner | April 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
Vulnerabilities in the Capital Acquisition Process From the stage of inception of a procurement proposal till the signing of the contract, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) diligently follows a fairly elaborate procurement procedure for capital acquisitions, as also for revenue procurements. The purpose of laying down a procedure is to minimize discretion and bring in transparency at every stage to eliminate the possibility of undue influence on decision making. But this does not seem to have worked very well for the MoD as instances of corruption keep surfacing every now and then. Amit Cowshish | April 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
India’s abstention in the vote against Sri Lanka at Geneva: Likely Implications Despite its abstention, India will continue to be evaluated negatively in Sri Lanka for its approach to the Tamil issue. Moreover, Colombo is also taking steps which may unnecessarily complicate bilateral relations. Smruti S. Pattanaik | April 16, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Venezuela’s Political Chaos: Flailing President and Strong Generals The country is witnessing protests which are the biggest in over a decade and will only worsen unless a political accommodation is arrived at soon. The efficacy of multilateral institutions like the UNASUR, not subservient to US interests, is also on test. Gautam Sen | April 16, 2014 | IDSA Comments
The Limits of French Military Intervention in Mali Containment of the terror threat in Sahel secures Europe, particularly its Southern parts; hence France has an interest in securing the region. However, France will not try to address the deep rooted political and socio-economic factors that are at the core of the Malian conflict as well as conflicts in other parts of Sahel. Nachiket Khadkiwala | April - June 2014 | Africa Trends
African Union Malabo Summit: Key Takeaways At the Malabo summit, the member states of the African Union seem to have set forth ambitious goals for pushing development, security and the integration agenda in the continent. Translation of these goals into reality will require coordination and cooperation by the African leaders and other stakeholders at a continental level. Ruchita Beri | April-June 2014 | Africa Trends
Indian Diaspora in Africa: A Profile Indian communities in Africa constitute 12.37 per cent of the total strength of India Diaspora and they reside in 46 countries of Africa inhabiting all linguistic, cultural or geographical regions of the continent Rajneesh Kumar Gupta | April-June 2014 | Africa Trends
Ukraine: What next? Three meetings to discuss Ukraine are scheduled for the week beginning on Monday, April 14. The first meeting is of EU foreign ministers at Luxembourg on April 14. They are supposed to consider further sanctions on Russia. The next day the EU defence ministers are going to meet. The third meeting in Geneva on April 17 will bring together US, Russia, EU, and EU. K. P. Fabian | April 13, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Implications of India`s Services Voters India has had a healthy tradition of the armed forces personnel being apolitical while being allowed to exercise their democratic right of voting in the electoral process. While the state police and central police and para-military units have been in the front tier of security network during the elections, the armed forces have discharged a crucial auxiliary-cum-supportive role. Gautam Sen | April 09, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Southeast Asian democracy: New time and take Southeast Asian countries are facing challenging times. Push for further democratisation within the countries and the established regimes resistance to it has the possibility of jeopardising the region’s political stability and which may impede the movement towards a ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Sampa Kundu | April 07, 2014 | IDSA Comments