Answers to all of Afghan problems can easily be found within the regional context. But the Afghan leadership is not likely to uphold the regional choice now.
The new military doctrine reflects Russia’s views on the changing geo-political order. It perceives key military risks as emanating primarily from the ‘West’ and dwells on measures to counter them.
The Bay of Bengal region is now growing in economic and strategic importance. The good economic prospects of many Bay of Bengal states are making the region a cockpit for Asian growth and a key economic connector between East and South Asia. This article looks at strategic developments in the Bay of Bengal and their implications for our understanding of the Indo-Pacific. It argues that the Bay of Bengal needs to be understood as a region with its own particular strategic dynamics and issues.
Despite the decline in piracy, there are other threats such as threat of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. The recent discovery of large deposits of natural gas off the country's sea coast has made the Tanzanian government vary of threat to the emerging natural gas infrastructure in the region and it is open to finding new partners, like India, to deal with this peril.
The new version of US maritime strategy candidly recognises China’s maritime expansion and territorial claims as a source of regional unrest, but stops short of recognising the A2/AD challenge even as it pronounces “all-domain access” as a strategic prerequisite.
President Ghani has extended an open invitation to the US for an open-ended military presence in Afghanistan and has also virtually expressed a readiness to play the role of a ‘frontline state’ for any future American contingency.
The Iran nuclear deal should not be seen in isolation. There has been a clear realisation in the West, especially in the US, that Iran needs to be brought out of international isolation and into the mainstream.
While Asia is home to the largest number of internet users on the planet, there is comparatively little contribution from the region to the discussions on cybersecurity.
India needs to shape the nature and scope of the projects the bank will finance to support the Asian Century and its own re-emergence as one of the two centres of gravity in Asia.
ADB’s yet another deferment of the decision on funding the DBD is a serious setback to Pakistan’s relentless efforts to obtain funds for constructing this mega hydro-power project on River Indus.
