Strategic Analysis

Saudi Arabia–Iran Contention and the Role of Foreign Actors

The Sykes–Picot Agreement, the Iranian Revolution, the Gulf Wars, and other events that have unfolded after the Arab Uprising (the Arab Spring), have altered the course of West Asian history....

An Iranian Perspective on Iran–US Relations: Idealists Versus Materialists

Over the past four decades, the relationship between Iran and the US has been marked by conflicts, ranging from hostage-taking and sanctions to military confrontation. The present research aims at...

Mohammad Reza Chitsazian , Seyed Mohammad Ali Taghavi |
January 2019 |
Strategic Analysis

India–Japan Defence Ties: Building a Strategic Partnership

India–Japan defence ties that began less than a decade ago have witnessed unprecedented progress. Until recently they were dominated by military exercises, training and regular dialogues, but now they are...

Assessing India’s Engagements in the INSTC and Analysing its Implications on India’s Commercial and Strategic Interests

The INSTC formalised by India, Iran and Russia at the start of the new millennium to develope an alternative transport system linking India with Central Asia and Eurasia floundered for...

East of India, South of China: Sino-India Encounters in Southeast Asia

With the rise of China and the rising tension between the China-South China Sea littoral states, the Southeast Asian region has emerged as a pivot of international politics. Changing US...

What is Russia up to in the Middle East?

Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015 is seen as a significant milestone in the geopolitics of the Middle East. By establishing stakes on the ground, the...

Rajorshi Roy |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Pakistan Army: Institution that Matters

Described variously as a ‘garrison’ or ‘praetorian’ state’, Pakistan is the only country in South Asia that has been under military rule for almost three-quarters of its sovereign existence. Even...

Aliva Mishra |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

A life in diplomacy

This is a candid, stimulating, and highly readable account of Ambassador Maharaja Krishna Rasgotra’s diplomatic life, and through it, also of the evolution of Indian foreign policy since 1947. The...

Jayant Prasad |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Xi Jinping’s Control of the Chinese Army

Since taking over power in 2012, the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s key initiative has been to make the Communist Party of China (CPC) relevant in the function of China’s political...

Amrita Jash |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Economic Security: The Missing Link in India’s National Security Architecture

A flurry of changes in India’s national security apparatus in the recent past have been the subject of public discussion. These include the constitution of a Defence Procurement Committee under...

Zubin Dash |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

The Quest for Federalism in Myanmar

The question of autonomy or self-determination in Myanmar goes back to the country’s pre-independence era. It is an important historical issue which unified and divided the country. The idea of...

Thucydides: Quoting and Misquoting

The Peloponnesian war was fought from 431 to 401 BC between the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta and the Athenian Empire, known as the Delian League led by Pericles, the...

P. K. Gautam |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Food Security in India: Evolution, Efforts and Problems

This article examines India’s efforts to achieve food security. It traces the problem, from the inadequate production of food grains during colonial times, to the challenges of procurement, storage and...

D. Padma Kumar Pillay , T.K. Manoj Kumar |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Security Challenges and the Management of the India–Myanmar Border

Being highly porous, poorly guarded and located along a remote, underdeveloped, insurgency-prone region and proximate to one of the world’s largest five opium producing areas, the India–Myanmar border is vulnerable...

Pushpita Das |
November 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Transformation of Indo-Bangladesh Relations: From Insecurity to Cooperation in Northeast India

Bangladesh and India are enjoying increasingly close relations in the latter’s northeastern region. This represents a transformation in the two countries’ past relationship, which was characterised by suspicion, distrust and...

Building militaries in fragile states: challenges for the United States

Mara E. Karlin in her book, Building Militaries in Fragile States: Challenges for the United States, investigates when, why and under what circumstances, US efforts to build partner militaries for...

Zalmay Khalilzad, The envoy: from Kabul to the White House, my journey through a turbulent world

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has provided a most readable account of his upbringing, his stint in the US National Security Council and his ambassadorships to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations....

Jayant Prasad |
September 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Balochistan: On The International Drugs Superhighway

Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan, has quietly functioned as one of the main arteries through which Afghanistan’s massive opium crop reaches the outer world. Six...

Sandhya Jain |
September 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Power Trading and National Security

Power trading across borders is not a new concept, even in the subcontinent. However, it has been sporadic and unstructured and often not in strict consonance with the requirements of...

The Current and Future State of India–Bangladesh Relations

At the outset, we must remind ourselves that Indo–Bangladesh cooperation began in the battlefield of 1971. As a freedom fighter diplomat, one recalls with deep appreciation and gratitude the whole-hearted...