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Building a BTWC Education Module for Life Scientists

In December 2006 the States Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), in the Final Document of their Sixth Five-Year Review Conference, agreed, in regard to Article IV… Continue reading Building a BTWC Education Module for Life Scientists

Malcolm Dando
January - March 2008
CBW Magazine

Armed Forces: A Career Choice?

The youth of today are a well-informed gentry. Mentally mobile, analytically aware, surgically sharp and clinically precise - the Indian teenager is rarely ingenuous or naive. He is inquisitively thorough, exhaustive in examination of his options and intensive in the depth of his research. With myriad technological tools at his back and call, he need look no further than the nearest cyber café, his very own modem-enabled palm top or better still his personal 3G I-phone.

Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Security Concern for India

The process of globalisation has been understood as “time-space” compression1. Structurally, the boundaries that separate human conditions are now diminishing, enabled by rapid interaction. Philosophically, globalisation has led to the… Continue reading Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Security Concern for India

Monalisa Joshi
January - March 2008
CBW Magazine

Uttar Pradesh Emerging as a Terror Hub

Uttar Pradesh is emerging as a terror hub in the country. The January 1 attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rampur by four militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is the latest in a series of terror-related incidents to rack the state during the last year. Six serial blasts were earlier trigged on November 23, 2007 by militants belonging to the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), targeting the Varanasi court premises, the lawyers’ chambers in Faizabad, and a civil court in Lucknow. Two live bombs were also recovered and subsequently defused.

Private Sector Participation in Indian Defence Industry

India opened up its defence industry to the private sector in May 2001, in a move to enhance the country’s ‘defence preparedness’. To give further impetus to this policy, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) came out with new policy measure related to the concepts of private Industry Leaders [or Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs)] “Make” procedure, and defence offsets, in its 2006 Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). With these policy initiatives, the government’s focus seems to have shifted towards the private sector as far as achieving its long-cherished goal of ‘self-reliance’ is concerned.

Changing Global Security Environment with Specific Reference to our Region and it’s Impact on the Indian Army

It is indeed a great pleasure for me to address such an August gathering of security experts and to share thoughts and perception on the 'Changing Global Security Environment with Specific Reference to Our Region and its Impact on the Indian Army'.

Benazir’s Death and Pakistan’s Democratic Future

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007 at an election rally in Rawalpindi raises serious doubts about Pakistan’s peaceful political transition to an era of democratic politics. Eight years of Musharraf’s rule has seen growing fundamentalism, political instability and ethnic disaffection. It was thought that reverting to a troika system would bring about the right balance between a democratically elected leader and the Army, which would help arrest disenchantment and address instability.

America’s Pakistan Policy in Disarray

While the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has worsened the political turmoil in Pakistan, it has also left in disarray the US policy of attempting to nudge this crucial ally towards a democratic and stable future. The United States underwrote the deal between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto in the hope that her return to power would lend legitimacy to the former’s increasingly unpopular rule. In Bhutto and her party, the US found moderation and cosmopolitanism – a counterforce to the growing religious extremism in the country.

Whose Arctic is it anyway?

2007 will be remembered as the year of climate change and high oil prices. Starting with the first of the four reports of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the debate culminated in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC. Even the ill-fated Bali conference which failed to provide concrete direction to the future of international environmental policy reinforced the need for swift global action to curb carbon emissions.

Rising Cost of the Global War on Terror

The Global War on Terror (GWOT), now into its sixth year, has become one of the most expensive wars in American history. GWOT covers three military operations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which broadly covers Afghanistan but ranges from the Philippines to Djibouti; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), which is meant to provide better security for US military bases and enhanced homeland security; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) which began with the build-up of troops for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The cost of these operations has phenomenally increased over the years.