Strategic Analysis

China’s Wars and Strategies: Looking Back at the Korean War and the Sino-Indian War

This article explores China’s war experiences in the Korean War and the Sino-Indian War and analyses China’s strategic decisions at the time of its national establishment. This article suggests that...

Jiye Kim |
March 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Policies Since September 11, 2001: Harmonising National Security, Independent Oversight and Individual Liberties

Australia has remained insulated from mega terrorist attacks, but post-September 11 its involvement in the war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria...

The Belt and Road Initiative: Exploring Beijing’s Motivations and Challenges for its New Silk Road

This article argues that Beijing’s ambitious ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) is driven by the convergence of Innenpolitik and Aussenpolitik motivations including a desire: to counterbalance perceived American predominance

India in Australia’s Strategic Framing in the Indo–Pacific

The world is witnessing a geopolitical shift from the North Atlantic to the Indo–Pacific region. US power is in relative decline with a steady build-up of Chinese power, wealth and...

Asia in international relations: unlearning imperial power relations

The discipline of International Relations (IR) is deeply enmeshed in the history, intellectual traditions and agency claims of the West, thus obscuring the contributions from the non-Western world. IR theory...

Gas Pipelines—Politics and Rivalries

In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its ‘World Energy Outlook’ said that the world was entering a ‘Golden Age of Gas’. With its lower carbon-emitting properties, gas seemed...

Shebonti Ray Dadwal , Chithra Purushothaman |
January 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Analysing the Impacts of Drug Trafficking on Human Security in Central Asia

The international security environment has undergone many changes since the end of the Cold War. There has been a need to adapt the concept of security with the changing conditions...

China’s Mediation Efforts in the Middle East and North Africa: Constructive Conflict Management

Mediation diplomacy has emerged as one of the central pillars of China’s foreign policy objectives and practice, with Beijing deliberately positioning itself as a peacemaker in the MENA region. This...

India’s Bilateral Security Relationship in South Asia

The article argues that the contours of a security architecture are becoming slowly visible in South Asia. This process is nurtured by two developments. First, since the 2000s, India has...

India–US Defence Cooperation: Assessing Strategic Imperatives

Over the last decade or so, especially during much of Barack Obama’s presidential tenure, the defence sector has become the focus area of cooperation between India and the US. India’s...

Vivek Mishra |
January 2018 |
Strategic Analysis

Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World by Shadi Hamid

Is Islam compatible with modernity? Can Muslim societies adapt to Westphalian democratic principles? Islamic Exceptionalism revisits this recurring debate by examining political transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, where Islamist...

Negotiating the US–Japan alliance: Japan confidential by Yukinori Komine

If there is one country that is undergoing unprecedented shifts in its security policies, it is Japan; Speculation was rife that Japan would try and step out of America shadow...

G.V.C. Naidu |
November 2017 |
Strategic Analysis

War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft by Robert D. Blackwill and Jennifer M. Harris

Geo-economics was one among several ideational constructs postulated as the likely defining characteristic of international politics after the end of the Cold War. A neologism coined by Edward Luttwak, the...

The Brexit-Belt and Road Axis: India for Neighbourhood First

China's Belt & Road Initiative (B&RI), also known as One-Belt-One-Road (OBOR), depends for its success on a tacit alliance with Britain and the financial acumen of the City of London....

Sandhya Jain |
November 2017 |
Strategic Analysis

Too Early to Celebrate! The Decline of Somali Piracy off the East Coast of Africa

The pirates of Somalia constitute one one of the greatest threats to maritime security in modern time.Their operations started amidst the political instability, economic crisis and state collapse that characterised...

Muslim Traditionalism and Violence in the Middle East

In recent years, especially after the 9/11 attacks on America, Western academics and policy-makers have increasingly viewed Islam as an inherently violent religion and Muslims as terrorists.

Korea’s Cultural Diplomacy: An Analysis of the Hallyu in India

Korea’s rapid economic transformation from being one of the poorest countries during the 1950s to becoming a member of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1996 surprised...

Waiting for Godot*: India and United Nations Security Council Reform

This article analyses the history of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reform with a particular focus on India’s aspiration and attempts to become a permanent member on the Council....

Rajeesh Kumar |
November 2017 |
Strategic Analysis

Disaster Relief as a Political Tool: Analysing Indian and Chinese Responses after the Nepal Earthquakes

In the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal, China and India immediately sent relief teams. The relief efforts in Nepal showcase a competitive aspect of the two major regional...

Bibek Chand |
November 2017 |
Strategic Analysis

Heading East: Security, Trade, and Environment Between India and Southeast Asia by Karen Stoll Farrell and Sumit Ganguly (eds.)

Southeast Asia appeared in India’s purview in the post-Cold War era when it realised that it could reap substantial benefits by fostering relations with parts of the world other than...

Shivani Agrawal |
September 2017 |
Strategic Analysis