Publication - MP-IDSA

Alex Mintz and Karl DeRouen Jr., Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making

Leaders make decisions to go to war, make peace, form alliances, establish diplomatic relations, take a position on nuclear nonproliferation, impose economic sanctions, or ratify global environmental agreements. The focus of Alex Mintz and Karl DeRouen’s book Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making is this broad range of foreign policy decisions. The book presents a decision making approach to foreign policy analysis. The benefits of such an approach are that it analyses not only the outcomes of decisions but also the dynamics and the processes of decision making.

China’s Aircraft Carrier: Some Observations

China’s aircraft carrier programme will not only affect the balance of power in the Asia Pacific region but also add impetus to the Chinese maritime intent.

Avinash Godbole , Sarabjeet Singh Parmar |
April 21, 2011 |
IDSA Comments

India-Pakistan Game-Theoretic Interplay

To make the transition from the prevalent Nash Equilibrium with its lower payoffs to Pareto-optimal which will yield higher pay offs, India and Pakistan must break away from their traditional thinking of making no concessions.

Arvind Gupta , Sarita Azad |
April 20, 2011 |
IDSA Comments

Kan Naoto’s Political Skills Under Test

If the political infighting continues, Japan will be left rudderless and the gigantic task of reconstruction will get complicated.

Rajaram Panda |
April 20, 2011 |
IDSA Comments

Yury Gagarin and Space Rivalry

On the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s space flight, the space scenario appears to be at a crossroads. Because of the economic and other geopolitical compulsions, major powers are found trading cautiously.

Ajey Lele |
April 20, 2011 |
IDSA Comments

Time to Reassure Nepal

S.M. Krishna should reassure the people of Nepal that India has always acted in the interests of the Nepalese people and that it has no intention to interfere in the internal politics of the country.

Outcome Budgeting for Naval Dockyards

The Indian Navy (IN) has one Naval Dockyard (ND) each at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam and one Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY) each at Kochi, Port Blair and Karwar. The repair and refit requirements of IN ships and submarines are collectively met by the above mentioned repair agencies. NDs have the capacity and capability to handle Major Refits (MR). The Operational-cum-Refit cycle of each ship / class of ship is promulgated by IHQ MoD (N) from time to time.

Japan Continues to Battle Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

After the threat level for the Fukushima plant was raised from 5 to 7, Japan’s claims about the situation getting stabilised are being received with a degree of scepticism.

Rajaram Panda |
April 18, 2011 |
IDSA Comments

Reconciling AFSPA with the Legal Spheres

The present paper analyses and examines the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in respect of legal aspects. It first discusses it in terms of domestic law, international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law. Given India’s obligations under international human rights instruments going beyond domestic law is necessary in any such discussion. Ensuring complementarity between the Act in its application in armed conflicts and IHL, would contribute towards making the Act more ‘humane’. The second part discusses the Act from security perspectives.

Restructuring the Indian Armed Forces

This paper broadly deals with two important aspects. First, it analyses various security challenges that India is facing at present; and second, it examines the need for restructuring the Indian Armed Forces to address these security challenges. It explains that India is in a two front situation with China to the