Strategic Analysis

The concept of ‘Vivir Bien´ or ´Good Life’ has emerged in Bolivia’s political, policy and diplomatic discourse after the ascension to power of Evo Morales in December 2005, the first person of indigenous ethnicity to be President of Bolivia. In South Asia and other parts of the world much is known about Bhutan’s Index of Happiness, but little is heard about ‘Vivir Bien’ or ‘Good Life’, the ideology of Life, Politics and Diplomacy emanating from Bolivia, in the heart of Latin America.

• Sandeep Chakravorty |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

The recent Australian decision to extend civilian nuclear cooperation to India, overriding its own long-term principled position, is no ordinary development. Taking that as a starting point, this article seeks to set out the context and rationale for an all-round and long-term closer relationship between the two countries.

• Vishal Ranjan |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

In the last two decades, cross-border gas pipelines have become an integral part of discourse on India’s energy security. Successive reports from the government and the private sector have envisaged an important role for cross-border gas pipeline projects in India. After engaging in negotiations for several years, the Indian Government finally joined the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline over the Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline (IPI) and the Myanmar–Bangladesh–India pipeline (MBI).

• Sanket Sudhir Kulkarni |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article analyses India’s economic, military and political rise in the international state system. It concludes that India is on the rise in all three power dimensions, underpinned by a larger share of global GDP. However, it also identifies the constraints on the way. On matters concerning its economy, India lags behind in industrial prowess, innovation, socio-economic development and financial strength. While modernising its defence capabilities, it faces obstacles due to budget issues, institutional constraints and a weak defence industry.

• Samuel Bergenwall |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in November 2012 and the President of the People’s Republic of China in March 2013. Ever since, under his leadership as the Chinese President, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been progressively tightening its control over the media. In a Communist structure, the media is perceived to be the ‘mouthpiece’ of the Party and is supposed to be used for propaganda. Media is a very essential tool in spreading the government agenda and controlling the public discourse.

• Gunjan Singh |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

A watershed moment for nuclear security was reached when global leaders from more than 50 countries including India and other organisations met successively over six years (2010–2016) to develop an effective and sustainable plan for global nuclear security. At the end of six years, much has been accomplished to improve and upgrade nuclear security in several countries. Despite this perseverance, threats to nuclear security still remain undiminished, primarily because wrong people nursing a malicious agenda desire nuclear and radiological materials.

• Reshmi Kazi |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Over the last few years, it has been a roller coaster ride for the oil markets. From $110 a barrel in 2010, prices began dropping from June 2014 and finally dropped to below $30 a barrel in January 2016. Then from the end of the first quarter of 2016, prices started recovering and have been hovering around $50 a barrel since May

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran is important in many ways. It came at a time when India is seriously contemplating activation of its ‘Look West’ policy and banking on Iran as a ‘gateway’ and provider of a corridor to Central Asia and Afghanistan. The visit sought to revitalise India–Iran bilateral relations which has passed through an uncertain phase during the last decade.

• M. Mahtab Alam Rizvi , Ashok K. Behuria |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often touted as India’s Deng Xiaoping, expected to lead the country on a path of economic reform and accelerated growth.1 While Modi rose to power on an economic mandate, it is his foreign policy that has received the most attention in the media. Modi has been criticised by the media, the public and the opposition parties for taking several overseas trips in his short tenure in office.

• Aakriti Tandon |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Prof P. Stobdan (Senior Fellow, IDSA)’s reading of history fails to predict Tibet’s future from the beginning. The Dalai Lama has informed the Tibetan people about his thinking on the succession issue since as early as 1969. Later on September 24, 2011, the Dalai Lama took a definite position on the succession issue, where the Dalai Lama made it very clear that the decision to continue or not continue with the institution of the Dalai Lama lies with the Tibetan people. The real reason for ‘Younghusband’s visit’ to Tibet was not to lay a telegraph line.

• Tenzin Tsultrim |
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Few issues have drawn as much attention and have been debated as intensely as the rise of India. There has been a plethora of literature that almost dissects various factors that have contributed to India’s rise and what the future holds for the country. Will India emerge as a major player in the international system? Will it be able to compete with a rising China as an Asian power? These are some of the questions that have confronted scholars of international relations and security.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

The process of active collaboration between the practitioner and the scholar can sometimes result in desirable policy outcomes. The book under review is one such commendable initial attempt. Ambassador Navrekha Sharma retired from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS); her assignments included Joint Secretary (JS) South (1999–2001) and Ambassadorial posting to the Philippines and Indonesia. In fact, she had two postings in Jakarta, first as Minister-Counsellor (1993–1996) and later as Ambassador (2006–2008).

• Udai Bhanu Singh |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Maps, world atlases, and travel books have always been invaluable sources of geographic knowledge. These sources, and their pedagogical significance, are a powerful tool used by geopolitical actors to control territories, peoples, and discourses. Thus, world leaders, even leaders of weak nations, are acutely aware of their geography’s importance. This is crucial in the assessment of a state’s geopolitical strengths and weaknesses in relation to its national progress and survival.

• Necati Anaz |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

One of the most popular anecdotes of the 1971 war is Field Marshal Manekshaw’s tale of how he restrained an impatient Indira Gandhi from ordering an unprepared Indian army to march into East Pakistan in April. The Field Marshal’s prowess as a raconteur fully matched his military skills but exceeded his grasp of the political and diplomatic dimensions of the grand strategy shaped by Indira Gandhi and her advisors.

• Chandrashekhar Dasgupta |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

India is often perceived as a regional power, but a closer look reveals that it is in a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis China in South Asia. The first reason is that Indian governments never had the political, economic, and military capacities to pursue their regional power ambitions with their neighbours in the long run. South Asian countries could always play the China card in order to evade India’s influence. Second, India’s new South Asia policy with the focus on trade and connectivity has improved regional cooperation since 1991.

• Christian Wagner |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article explores the backdrop of the engagement between the International Community (IC) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) over the conduct of the military during the last stages of its engagement with the secessionist Tamil militants which (especially from January to May 2009) led to a humanitarian crisis. The efforts of the IC to persuade the GoSL to halt the military operations and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to concede defeat, to ensure human security, were a failure.

• Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article argues that while the concept of peace building proved beneficial to Western society, it drew flak in pre-2014 Afghanistan for its inbuilt faults, the overarching US–Taliban conflict and the state failure towards meeting the prerequisites of the coalition strategy. It also argues that peace building in the immediate future of post-2014 Afghanistan is improbable due to the existing and likely conflicts between and among the Afghan government, the Taliban and the newly emerging Daesh or IS group for power, group and ideological domination.

• Mushtaq A. Kaw |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article analyses modern Western society from the standpoint of the concept of ‘ideocracy’. The author suggests that the development of mass societies and mass ideologies—noted by a number of theorists and philosophers since the end of the 19th century—led to a qualitatively new level of social development in the second half of the 20th century. The globalisation of the economy and mass communications has led to the globalisation of the masses, beyond the confines of national borders.

• Alexander Lukin |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

Since the fall of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, there has been an apparent foreign policy shift in Sri Lanka. There is a growing view that the new National Unity Government (NUG), which came to power in January 2015 with Maithripala Sirisena as President, has shown its proclivities towards India and the US and moved away from China, especially under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

• Gulbin Sultana |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis

The results of the most recent Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections in Iran indicate that Iranians are increasingly unhappy with the conservative establishment in the country. The Reformists or moderates and pro-Rouhani group of ‘Hope’ secured a majority in the Assembly of Experts and also won more seats than their rival conservatives or Principlists in the Majlis or parliament. The elections for the two bodies were held on February 26, 2016.

• M. Mahtab Alam Rizvi |
• July 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis