India’s Maoists: Financing the war machinery In a document entitled ‘Our Financial Policy’, the Maoists mention that they have three types of economic needs, viz. the needs of war, political propaganda and the people. To cater to these needs there are three broad categories of resources, viz. (a) membership fee, levy and contributions from the people; (b) confiscation of the wealth and income of the enemy; and (c) ‘revolutionary taxes’ collected in guerrilla zones and base areas. P. V. Ramana | December 27, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Delegation of Powers to the Armed Forces in a Time Warp MoD, according to news reports, has instructed the Army HQ that its permission will need to be taken before changing the structure or role of the units in future. This could easily be interpreted to mean that there are no existing instructions on such vital issues. But such an impression would be wrong. Amit Cowshish | December 26, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Taking Stock of Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s One Year Rule In the last one year, Xi’s has consolidated his position within the Standing Committee of the Party Politbureau, elevated information security as China’s core concern and focused on internal security as a result of slowing of the economy. Taking a cue from Mao, Xi has promoted the spirit of nationalism in China and like Mao he is finding a foreign target for nothing subsumes internal dissidence as does the promotion of xenophobic tendencies. R. S. Kalha | December 20, 2013 | IDSA Comments
India’s Nuclear Triad: A Net Assessment This paper discusses such delivery mechanisms commonly known together as nuclear triad in the Indian context. The paper has four major parts. The first part attempts to set the context for the overall discussion. The second, third and fourth parts deals with the evaluation about missile forces, aerial platforms and submarine based platforms for nuclear weapon delivery on the targets. Ajey Lele , Parveen Bhardwaj | | Occasional Papers
Iftikhar Choudharys Judicial Activism and the Pakistani state: Time for a rethink? While Choudhary’s judicial activism did restore a degree of sanity to Pakistan, it came at the expense of other institutions and created an imbalance of power. Pakistan, to become a normal state, at peace with itself and the world at large, may not need institutional tinkering but a wholesale rejigging of its institutional superstructure and substructure. Wajahat Qazi | December 18, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Chinese intrusions across the LAC China’s border intrusions have been bolstered by a steady and committed expansion of its military hardware and infrastructure in Tibet and neighbouring provinces. The improvement of surface transportation near the LAC has resulted in larger military presence and augmented rapid deployment capacities of the PLA and the PLAAF. Namrata Goswami | December 17, 2013 | Issue Brief
Border Roads Organisation in the North-East: Need for Priority The importance of the road network in the north-east needs no emphasis. India is now raising the 17 Mountain Corps to augment its strategic strike capability vis-à-vis China. The BRO is the key instrument to realise the road network objective and provide the required logistical capability to this Corps. Gautam Sen | December 16, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Mission Mars: India’s Quest for the Red Planet Publisher: Springer ISBN 978-81-322-1521-9 Price: 49,99 € The objective of the book is to find an answer to the rationale behind the human quest for the Mars exploration. As a comprehensive assessment for this query is undertaken, it is realized that the basic question ‘Why Mars?’ seeks various responses from technological, economic and geopolitical to strategic perspectives. Ajey Lele | | Book
Is It Time to Withdraw the Army from Kashmir? 2013 witnessed the highest ceasefire violations in eight years, accompanied by a sharp increase in security force casualties. Some sections within the media and intelligentsia have misunderstood the army’s presence in disturbed areas as a reflection of its vested interests. It is time that the reality of its role and responsibility are better understood. Vivek Chadha | December 13, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Who Sets the Agenda? Does ‘Prime Time’ Really Pace Policy? At a time when the country is seeing crises - political, social and moral, the role of the media is rising in perception as never before. But how much does 'prime time' in the era of 24 hour news coverage actually impact policy? This monograph unpacks the perceived influence of the media in specific foreign policy episodes and argues that while it has introduced accountability and real-time responses to issues, it still has not been able to establish long term policy impact. Shruti Pandalai | 2013 | Monograph
