Strategic Analysis

Environmental Stresses and their Security Implications for South Asia

In discussing the dynamics of contemporary conflicts, scholars, over the last decade, have focused on the ‘interconnectivity’ between environmental factors and violent conflict—for example between migration and environmental mismanagement, debt and violence and between ethnic conflict and resource disputes. Such an approach corresponds to the post-Cold War reexamination and redefinition of security in more comprehensive conceptual terms.

Japan’s Security Concerns and Policy Responses

Japanese foreign policy and security perceptions have undergone a perceptible and steady change over the past decade, especially under the leadership of former Prime Minister Koizumi (2001-2006). Its support for the US war on terror was a significant step in its growing international politico-security profile.

Nawab Bugti’s Assassination: Future Portents

“I have been a Baloch for several centuries. I have been a Muslim for 1400 years. I have been a Pakistani for just over fifty”,

Terror Trends: Mega Cities, Maximum Impact

The security environment of India is in a critical phase, repeatedly challenged by terrorism, with outfits operating out of Pakistan continuing to be highly active and finding new and unexpected targets. Trend analyses over the years indicate that the targets, motives and operatives have changed. Terrorist attacks are no more targeted mainly at security forces and government establishments, but have expanded to include strikes against India’s economic and strategic assets.

The Essence of the South Asian Nuclear Debate

Scott D. Sagan, Kenneth N. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons A Debate Renewed With New Sections on India and Pakistan, Terrorism, and Missile Defence (New York: W W Norton and Company, 2003).

The Dark Side of the West’s Global War on Terror

Craig Murray, Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (Mainstream Publishing Company Edinburgh, 2006), pp. 400

Water as a Source of Conflict and Instability in China

China’s focus on high economic growth over the last decade and ‘economy first’ principle have put serious strain on its water resources. China has only 7 per cent of the world’s total water resources but more than 20 per cent of the global population. It increasingly faces acute challenges regarding water distribution, supply, and quality, and there are clear signs that unless the state takes urgent corrective measures serious water-related conflicts and political instability may occur. For

The Politics of Reform in China: Deng, Jiang and Hu

This paper seeks to understand the political dynamics that operates behind reforms in China. To interpret the political influences that have, and are, determining the course and trajectory of the reform process, two themes have been chosen. First, an examination of ideological trends (determinants) and their relationship with economic reforms, and the second, as an important corollary, the behaviour of factions (variables) within the Communist Party of China (CPC) that have differing

Radical Islamic Movements: Gender Construction in Jamaat-i-Islami and Tabligh-i-Jamaat in Pakistan

Muslim women are generally viewed as victims of prevailing religious and patriarchal discourses. Their subjectivity and subordinate position is discussed as imposed, through textual representations by orthodox and radical Muslims. Radical Islamic movements are examined as militarized masculinities, oppressing women as well as terrorizing the non-Muslims. This paper argues that women are active partners of their subordination within traditionalist and radical religious movements. They are agents of orthodoxy and have carved a new role for themselves within the religious paradigms.

MMA-Democracy Interface in Pakistan: From Natural Confrontation to Cohabitation?

The myth regarding religious parties in Pakistan possessing street power sans political power was broken with the success of the Muttahida Majlise Amal’s (MMA)—a coalition of Muslim parties and groups— in the 2002 general elections. The party sprung to power for a variety of reasons including the support it received from General Musharraf’s military establishment. The MMA on several occasions facilitated Musharraf’s political schema in the hope for larger political favours, drawing severe criticism from both within and outside the party.