Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
मनोहर पर्रिकर रक्षा अध्ययन एवं विश्लेषण संस्थान

Publication

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and his Biographers

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (1905–1982) occupies an enigmatic position in Kashmir’s political memory. To his supporters, he remains the Sher-i-Kashmir; to his critics, a symbol of political compromise. Lockwood observed long ago that Abdullah’s politics were shaped by the ‘test of wills’ between his regionalism and nationalisms (Lockwood Citation1969, 384). This ‘test’ became the defining feature of his political life. This review essay critically examines Chitralekha Zutshi’s Sheikh Abdullah: The Caged Lion of Kashmir and Altaf Hussain Para’s The Making of Modern Kashmir: Sheikh Abdullah and the Politics of the State. Zutshi interprets Abdullah primarily as a figure shaped by postcolonial nationalist narratives, arguing that his leadership was continuously reconstructed through symbolic representation and political pragmatism (Zutshi Citation2024). Para, in contrast, attributes Abdullah’s contradictions to his personal political development, asserting that Abdullah used ideologies ‘to raise his own stakes rather than to build a consistent political philosophy’ of his own (Para Citation2019, 280).

Aid, Politics and the War of Narratives in the US–Pakistan Relations: A Case Study of Kerry Lugar Berman Act

Pakistan has longed for external patronage, mainly because of its ambition to achieve parity with its eastern neighbour, India. It has often got external support, for two reasons: firstly, its geopolitical location in the region has attracted attention of great powers; second is its nature of emanating security threats from the region in the form of transnational terrorism. But the question arises—how has Pakistan benefitted from these and why? One of the factors that has marred the growth and stability of Pakistan is the abysmal state of its economy. One after another simmering economic crises, on one hand, have undermined the credibility of the political leadership and, on the other, they have emboldened the military to interfere in political affairs, leading to a power tussle, in which each has been trying to dominate the country’s domestic and foreign policy at the expense of restructuring the economy and polity. In such a situation, it is foreign aid that has helped the country survive. Pakistan has knocked at the door of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 23 times, the highest by any country.

Evolution of India’s Polar Policies

As the Polar Regions become pivotal to global politics, is India doing enough to keep up the momentum? This inquiry lies at the heart of Evolution of India’s Polar Policies, authored by Jawahar Bhagat and Anurag Bisen. The book is a rare academic contribution that provides an integrated assessment of India’s polar engagements in both the Arctic and Antarctica. Moving beyond conventional scientific and moralistic perspectives, it presents a distinctive blend of strategic insight and policy analysis through geopolitical, geo-economic and security-oriented lenses.

Indo-Soviet Relations

Three main points need to be kept in view in a discussion of the background against which Indo-Soviet relations have developed. First, Jawaharlal Nehru enunciated the policy of non-alignment and took the initiative for the development of Indo-Soviet friendship at a time when Stalin regarded India as a semi-colony and the late Prime Minister himself as a British stooge and when he hardly took any interest in Southern Asia.

Ayub’s Foreign Policy – From Alliance to Equidistance

The departure of President Ayub from the Pakistani scene after a decade of almost unchallenged supremacy provides us with an opportune moment for the evaluation of his contribution in the sphere of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Like every other sphere of Pakistani life, the foreign policy of Pakistan, as it has developed over the last decade, has been primarily the handiwork of President Ayub. We should disabuse our minds from the outset from the notion that President Ayub Khan’s 10 years in office had brought about any basic rethinking as far as the fundamental objectives of Pakistan’s foreign policy are concerned. These objectives remained the same during the Ayub period as they had during the pre-Ayub days.

Situating Africa in the Indo-Pacific construct the Role of India and External Powers

From an African perspective, literature on maritime security and the Indo-Pacific is very limited. Any discussion on Africa's inclusion and role in the Indo-Pacific discourse is at a nascent stage. The maritime security aspects and challenges facing African countries situated in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region have thus far not been adequately explored in the existing literature. The scholarly debates and international responses have tended to focus mostly on piracy in African waters. Piracy has sensitised both Africa and the international community to the threats off Africa, but it has also skewed perceptions about Africa's maritime landscape. Despite that, maritime security in an African context has been increasingly assuming prominence in the African security agenda. This monograph studies, analyses, and highlights the imperative for African countries in the WIO region to integrate themselves and play a constructive role in the emerging Indo-Pacific debate. It also attempts to find out the ways through which African countries in the WIO region could benefit by developing common positions on the Indo-Pacific based on shared interests and principles. Such a study is important because multilateralism matters for African states as it gives them the best chance to pool resources and ideas to influence global decisions and ensure that their voices are factored in discussions that have a bearing on the continent's growth and development.

  • Visitor No:25963845
  • © Manohar Parrikar Institute For Defence Studies and Analyses
  • XHTML validation2.0 Level Double-A Conformance
    CSS Validator
    Explanation of WCAG 2.0 Level Double-A Conformance