Indo-Pak Joint Statement: India puts faith in Pakistan’s sincerity Pakistan’s Prime Minister Gilani and Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh signed a joint statement on July 16, 2009 at Sharm el-Sheikh inEgypt on the margins of theNAM summit. In India the statement has been seen as a softening of India’s stand towards Pakistan. In Pakistan it has been seen as a “victory” for Pakistani diplomacy. Arvind Gupta July 20, 2009 IDSA Comments
Moon Mission Malfunction It is a dream project not only for India’s space research organization (ISRO) but for all Indians. With the successful launch of the Moon Mission, ISRO had put India into the bracket of deep-space achievers. The world took serious note of India’ space programme when in October 2008 ISRO successfully launched its satellite Chandrayan-1 towards the moon. If the 1998 Pokharan nuclear tests had helped India demonstrate its ‘hard power’ status, the success of the moon mission indirectly played a significant role towards establishing the ‘soft power’ credentials of the country. Ajey Lele July 20, 2009 IDSA Comments
Outsourcing and Vendor Development in the Indian Ordnance Factories Ordnance factories are the oldest and largest single organisation in India's defence industrial set up. The organisation is found to be inefficient and uncompetitive from the angles of market share, capacity utilisation, timely delivery of demands, cost of equipment produced, level of technology handled and the volume of exports. While the organisation may retain its structure, it could significantly improve its efficiency and competitiveness by selective use of 'outsourcing' of its production activities in an organised manner. N. Neihsial July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
Saving India-U.S. Partnership U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the U.S.-India Business Council in Washington D.C. on 17th June rekindling hope that India-U.S. relations could regain some of the traction lost under the Obama administration. She is now on a visit to India and it would be keenly watched for the actions she would take to match her words, especially since there is a growing uneasiness at the U.S. insensitivity to some of India’s important concerns. And the list of issues that could poison India-U.S. relations is getting longer. Thomas Mathew July 19, 2009 IDSA Comments
Community Participation in Border Management India's territorial borders, both land and sea, suffer from diverse physical, ethnic and cultural contradictions. While the state has a major role in securing war frontier, the populations along territorial peripheries, too, can play an important role in securing our interests. The people living in these areas are the most important ingredient towards a secure and safe border area. This would entail reconceptualising the concept of border guarding to effective border management, where local people became the centre of gravity of all actions. Om Shankar Jha July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
Keynote Address at the Eleventh Asian Security Conference All-out wars are no longer the norm for settling disputes among states. Rapid globalisation has led to profound changes by creating interdependence amongst states and people making inter-state wars an era of bygone years. Liberal policies are increasingly connecting Asia to the world economy and building high stakes for peace and world order. India is committed to building a strong, non-discriminatory international norms and institutes to strengthen world peace and stability. A. K. Antony July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
Joint Logistics: The Way Forward Joint logistics is an emerging imperative in the Indian operational context. The author argues that there is a tremendous scope for integration of logistics amongst the three services. A number of areas such as automation of common logistic processes, modes of transportation, certain provisioning and procurement policies and medical services have been identified. There is an urgent need to identify the commonality in processes and practices to initiate the process of jointmanship in the field of military logistics. S. Bhalla July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
Chinese Naval Strategy in the Twenty First Century: The Turn to Mahan In order to gauge the likely direction of Chinese foreign and security policy, it is important to follow Chinese commentary on how Beijing should manage its ascent to 'peaceful rise' which is claimed to be replete with references to 'history' and 'strategic theory'. The past does not predetermine the future, but by no means is it inconsequential. S. Rajasimman July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
China’s Emerging Cyber War Doctrine China will develop much greater depth and sophistication in its understanding and handling of information warfare techniques and operations. With Indian security becoming increasingly dependent on date processing and network centricity, it will become extremely vulnerable to such information warfare campaigns. India needs to adopt a multidisciplinary approach towards dealing with the emerging cyber warfare threats and develop appropriate response. Gurmeet Kanwal July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
Deterring Threat from Weapons of Mass Destruction A relaxed security situation has the potential to provide space for non-state actors to launch an attack with Weapons of Mass Destruction. While it may be difficult to deter WMD threats, there are ways and means to minimise the possibility of WMD attacks. The author argues that the solution lies in adopting an integrated approach by simultaneously addressing the 'demand' and 'supply' side of the WMD threat. This would imply maintaining pressure on nuclear capable states to heighten security of nuclear assets and also, severing the drug mafia-terrorist linkages in the longer run. Dushyant Singh July 2009 Journal of Defence Studies
