Strategic Analysis

Towards a Proactive Military Strategy: ‘Cold Start and Stop’

The article reviews the Cold Start doctrine in light of the limited war doctrine. It argues that the launch of strike corps entails a risk prone war expansion. War termination...

Japan’s New Defence Guidelines: An Analysis

During the entire post-World War II period Japan isolated itself from the ongoing power struggle. Even during the height of the Cold War when its two neighbours – the Soviet...

Afghan Reconciliation Falling Through

Various reports on ‘Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan’ produced by the US Department of Defense, 2010 (in coordination with some other departments) have struggled to paint an optimistic...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: Ideological But Not Praetorian

The role of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has come under an increasing spotlight in recent years. This scrutiny has intensified in the wake of the controversial June 2009...

India’s Nuclear Energy Programme: Prospects and Challenges

India has announced ambitious plans to expand its nuclear energy programme nearly 15 fold in the next 20 years, from the current 4,500 MWe to about 62,000 MWe by 2032....

Pakistan: Crisis is Inherent

On March 23 every year a ritual is performed in Pakistan: observation of Pakistan Day. Forty-two years ago on this day, the Muslim League, which then was 34 years old,...

Living Weapons: Biological Warfare and International Security by Gregory D. Koblentz

Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2009, pp. 256, $35, ISBN 978-0-8014-4768-6

Makers of Modern India by Ramchandra Guha

Penguin Viking, New Delhi, 2010, Rs. 799, ISBN 9780670083855

India and China – Neighbours, Strangers by Ira Pande

(ed.), HarperCollins, India 2010, Rs. 699, ISBN 978-81-72223-960-2

The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era by Michael Mandelbaum

PublicAffairs, New York, 2010, pp. 213, ISBN 978-1-58648-916-8

Confronting Terrorism by Maroof Raza

(ed.), Penguin Viking, India, 2009, pp. 201, Rs. 450, ISBN 9780670083695

Averting Armageddon

It is a little-known fact that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India had proposed a ‘standstill agreement’ to prohibit the further testing of nuclear weapons as early as 1953. In...

Kashmir: The Problem, and the Way Forward

There is an overwhelming sense of déjà vu in Kashmir today. This could have been deemed tiresome but for the grave implications it has for us as a nation, and...

Empowering the Kashmiris

Insurgencies as well as popular unrests are generally rooted in political, social and economic deprivations, which in turn lead to the alienation and estrangement of a community. A popular sentiment...

Autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir

The demand for autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) followed by heated discourses on the subject has been appearing and fading intermittently. The demand as well as discourses, articulated by...

Addressing Kashmir

The spate of rioting which plagued Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from June 2010 is testimony to the mismanagement of developments by both the state and central governments. This is all...

Public Diplomacy in India’s Foreign Policy

The last few years have witnessed an incredible change in global communications as well as politics. The proliferation of 24/7 news channels, the spread of the Internet and the ready...

West Asia and Oil Politics

Today hardly any part of the world is untouched by the interplay of oil and international politics. Consumers as well as producers are concerned about the impact of national and...

Taking the Arms Control Debate Forward: The Hague Code of Conduct and India

This article evaluates the opportunities associated with The Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) for India. HCoC is a stand-alone agreement against ballistic missile proliferation. Since the 1974 Pokharan nuclear tests...

Ajey Lele |
March 2011 |
Strategic Analysis

The GCC–Iran Conflict and its Strategic Implications for the Gulf Region

Continuing conflict, competition and rivalry have been a regular phenomenon in the Gulf region over the past few decades. Among other reasons, the troubled relationship between the Gulf Cooperation Council...