Strategic Analysis

The BRI and Sino-Indian Geo-Economic Competition in Bangladesh: Coping Strategy of a Small State

This article explains the Sino-Indian geo-economic competition in Bangladesh in the wake of the former’s launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. Beijing intends to fund various...

A Road Through Pakistan, and What This Means for India

Pakistan’s largest donor has been the United States of America, granting around $ 70 bn in aid. In 2015, China, as part of its One Belt One Road global ambitions,...

Sino-Indian Dynamics in Littoral Asia – The View from New Delhi

China’s growing stakes in the Indian Ocean, in particular the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) expanding profile in South Asia, has caused deep concern in India, where many believe Chinese...

The BRI and India’s Neighbourhood

Chinese President Xi Jinping initially proposed to build an ‘economic belt’ and a ‘21st-century Maritime Silk Road’ in 2013 which were formalised as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) in...

The BRI and India’s Grand Strategy

India’s rejection of the BRI for strategic reasons does not mean it is resistant to Chinese investments, which are—to the contrary—both welcome and rapidly increasing. Indian strategy in this respect...

Islamism and intelligence in South Asia: militancy, politics and security

State sponsorship of terrorism is a complex and often ignored subject in contemporary security studies discourses. As stated by the British military historian Adrian Weale and noted in the foreword...

Challenges in Europe: Indian Perspectives

Europe is a vast expanse of land marked by diversity in terms of people, places, preferences, cultures and beliefs. Scholarly works, however, often reduce European plurality to one or a...

No Place for Russia: European Security Institutions Since 1989

The dissolution of the Soviet Union, conflicts in former Soviet republics and in the Balkans, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria, the...

A Life Plucked Out of the Archives

It is not easy to turn somebody’s personal archive, even if it is well kept, into a book ? that too a biography ? without falling in love with the...

Future ‘Gateway’ to the India–China Economic Corridor: A Strategic Approach

In the beginning of the second week of February 2019, Ladakh became the third division within Jammu and Kashmir to be demarcated as a separate administrative and revenue division, with...

The Challenge of Coordinating India’s Multiple Border Forces: An Analysis of Cross-Border Infiltration Across the India-Pakistan Boundary

India’s international borders and disputed boundaries with its neighbours are guarded by five different Central Armed Police Forces, two Paramilitary Forces and the Indian Army.

Know Thy Neighbour: Growth of India and China—Socio-Cultural Precepts and Propositions*

It is very important for large and populous neighbours such as India and China to have a better understanding of one another’s history, culture and value systems. Perhaps no two...

The Rise of Kim Yo-Jong in the North Korean Regime

The state narrative of North Korea, the story that keeps the Kims in power and the population uncomplaining, is built as much around international politics as it is domestic. In...

US-Taliban Talks for Afghan Peace: Complexities Galore

The ongoing dialogue between the US and the Taliban has generated lot of interest among strategic analysts in the region and beyond. There are indications that the Taliban are hardening...

Ashok K. Behuria , Yaqoob-ul-Hassan , Sanya Saroha |
March 2019 |
Strategic Analysis

Critical Analysis of India’s Safeguards Agreement INFCIRC/754 with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

India concluded a fresh safeguards agreement (INFCIRC/754) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2009. All aspects of safeguards measures including the items to be safeguarded were deliberated upon,...

Decimating Democracy in 140 Characters or Less: Pakistan Army’s Subjugation of State Institutions through Twitter

The Directorate General of Inter Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR), or the Pakistan Army’s media wing has perfected the form of subverting democracy and showcasing the dominant position of the Army...

Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

Pakistan as a state has been in constant turmoil since its creation in 1947. Institutions of a modern, functional state could never take root in the country. Consequently, it has...

Preventing Chemical Weapons: Arms Control and Disarmament as the Sciences Converge

This 652-page book has six main sections and in total 21 chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. The basic themes discussed in the book include the prevention and disarmament issues...

Ajey Lele |
January 2019 |
Strategic Analysis

China’s War on Smuggling: Law, Economic Life and the Making of the Modern State, 1845-1965

The process of state-building in China has taken place in phases, beginning with the efforts of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the Nationalist government (1928–1949) and later communist rule (1949- present)....

Strategic Wisdom from the Orient: Evaluating the Contemporary relevance of Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Sun Tzu’s Art of War

Can non-Western sources of classical thought enhance our understanding about issues of statecraft, strategy-making, foreign policy, war and peace? Is it important to study such non-Western sources? And, can such...

Akshay Joshi |
January 2019 |
Strategic Analysis