Strategic Analysis

Explaining Non-Arctic States in the Arctic Council

How has the role of observers in the Arctic Council evolved and why is there increased interest in participation by states and international institutions? This article examines the influence and...

US Power and Influence in the Asia-Pacific Region: The Decline of ‘Alliance Mutuality’

Recently, the nature of the presence of the US in the Asia-Pacific has undergone significant changes. At least three developments—the rise of an economically and militarily resurgent China, a renewed...

The China–Pakistan axis: Asia’s new geopolitics by Andrew Small

‘“It is a little naive to think that the trouble with China was essentially due to a dispute over some territories. It had deeper reasons.”—Jawaharlal Nehru’ (p. 68). ‘“China has...

Routledge handbook of Chinese media by Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley

In the last three decades, the Chinese economy and society have witnessed unprecedented change and development. Since the introduction of the economic reforms in 1978 under the leadership of Deng...

Midnight’s furies: the deadly legacy of India’s partition by Nisid Hajari

In 2015, when India and Pakistan are into their 69th year of independence, this is an occasion to look back on the lost plot of their strategic engagements. The partition...

Re-emerging Powers and the Impasse in the UNSC over R2P Intervention in Syria

The article examines the influence of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) members that acts as an important condition of success for implementation of the three-pillared Responsibility to...

Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries: Nepal’s Transit Route Negotiations with India

There are multiple levels of relationship between India and Nepal. This article deals exclusively with their bilateral transit relations, focusing on their negotiations in the context of Nepal as a...

Modelling Multi-actor Security Dilemma

Regardless of the everlasting debate whether the nature of the international system is anarchic or cooperative, ‘security dilemma’ remains a well-known and oft-cited concept. Intimately connected to it is the...

Significance of the November 2015 Myanmar Elections

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide majority in the openly contested elections Myanmar held on Sunday, November 8, 2015.The NLD won a convincing...

Asian-African Century with Two Centres of Gravity: Reconciling the Potential of India with China, Already a Peer of the US

While China and the United States (US) have recognised the strategic significance of the re-emergence of Asia, India has yet to see itself as one of the two centres of...

India–Myanmar Relations: Changing Contours by Rajiv Bhatia

Myanmar is an underrated neighbour with the potential to influence India’s vital strategic and economic interests. To keep track of the pulse of the mystic nation that is India’s closest...

Right Turn in Indian Polity: Modi on BJP’s Chariot by Yogesh Atal and Sunil K. Choudhary

Actors, events and processes that determine the characteristics of the political scene in contemporary India may rightly be understood via a number of tropes—all equally useful and deficient at the...

Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years by A. S. Dulat and Aditya Sinha

Until recently, most top officials in India who had dealt with very sensitive issues in government refrained from writing about them. The adage they followed was that what everyone wanted...

Dynamics of ‘Civil-Military’ Relations in India

The burgeoning scholarship on the army’s role in nation building, or the lack of it, is unsurprising. In the modern political order, a nation without its own army is hardly...

Applying Human Security in the Indian Context

This article explores the concept of human security and examines the scope for its adoption as a normative and policy framework in India. Human security prioritises non-military methods as a...

Implications of the Dragon’s Rise for South Asia: Assessing China’s Nepal Policy

China has always been an important neighbour to Nepal which has otherwise historically been heavily influenced by India. The ‘rise of China’ has created a more outward-looking Middle Kingdom and...

India and Central Asia: Untying the Energy Knot

India was always aware of the enormous energy reserves within its geographically proximate Central Asian region that could potentially fulfil its energy demands. The recent visit by Prime Minister Modi...

P. Stobdan |
January 2016 |
Strategic Analysis

Kurdistan: Ataturk to Öcalan

The rise of Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham (Daesh), or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in the vacuum created by the war in these countries has reignited...

Sandhya Jain |
January 2016 |
Strategic Analysis

Assessing India’s Cyber Resilience: Institutional Stability Matters

In this commentary, I will use strategic cyberwar theory1 to explain why India has a higher level of cyber resilience than several of its potential adversaries. Even if India has...

Jan Kallberg |
January 2016 |
Strategic Analysis

Dams as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy: Geopolitical Implications for Pakistan

Pakistani planners are increasingly prone to recognize the many links between water, food, and energy security. The construction of new large dams is seen by many as a concrete measure...

Majed Akhter |
November 2015 |
Strategic Analysis