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    • Arnab Sen asked: Which countries in Southeast Asia are strategically important for India, and why?

    Rahul Mishra replies: India has always considered Southeast Asia as a region of high economic and strategic priority. From Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and K.M. Panikkar’s writings to India’s Maritime Doctrine - all refer to the significance of the region for India. By initiating the Look East Policy (LEP) in 1992, India further reinforced the significance of countries of Southeast Asia in its foreign policy and strategic planning. Without being selective, LEP focuses on all ten-member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In fact, Phase II of the LEP aims to look even beyond Southeast Asia to strengthen ties with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand- countries that fall in the wider East Asian region.

    India has also undertaken sub-regional initiatives, such as, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC). Both the BIMSTEC and MGC aim to engage the mainland Southeast Asian countries - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

    It would be naïve to grade countries of the region in terms of their strategic importance for India. India’s linkages with Southeast Asia encompass numerous aspects including culture, diaspora, defence cooperation, economic ties and India’s own developmental and security concerns. Each of these factors contributes to the strategic significance of countries in the region for India. For instance, while Vietnam has traditionally been a close friend on defence issues, Singapore is an equally important partner. By virtue of being a maritime neighbour and biggest country in terms of size, population and economy, Indonesia has always been a priority country. India has also maintained cordial relations with Malaysia and the Philippines over the years. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam are critically important for development and security of India’s north-eastern states. Transport linkages and religious tourism has further enhanced their importance.

    Additionally, India has had multilateral linkages with Southeast Asian countries through a number of institutional mechanisms, such as, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus.

    India As An Asia Pacific Power

    India's rise as a regional and global power could potentially alter the geopolitical landscape of the Asia-Pacific. With its economic growth and concomitant investments in military modernisation, many see India as evolving into a strategic pole in Asia. David Brewster in this volume sets out to examine ‘the consequences of India's rise on the Asia Pacific strategic order’ (p. ix) and asks whether India will indeed join the ranks of major powers in the coming years.

    Rukmani Gupta
    September 2012

    From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History

    Hardly any language in the subcontinent has a history as contested as that of Urdu. The history of Urdu is not just a story of linguistic evolution, but of the evolution of culture, of societies and of communities. Thus, undertaking the task of narrating this journey is in itself an act of courage and Tariq Rehman does it wonderfully well.

    Amit Julka
    September 2012

    Power, Conservatism and India’s Nuclear Disarmament Policy

    Given the fact that there is a lot of noise being made to prod India into doing more on nuclear disarmament counter-intuitively suggests that India is actually doing very less on the issue. What explains India's reluctance?

    Yogesh Joshi
    September 05, 2012

    Grand Strategy for India 2020 and Beyond

    Grand Strategy for India 2020 and Beyond
    • Publisher: Pentagon Security International
      2012

    This volume presents perspectives on cross-cutting issues of importance to India’s grand strategy in the second decade of the 21st century. The authors in this volume address the following important questions : What might India do to build a cohesive and peaceful domestic order in the coming decades? What should be India's China and Pakistan strategy? How could India foster a consensus on the global commons that serve India’s interests and values? What strategic framework will optimise India’s efforts to foster a stable and peaceful neighbourhood?

    • ISBN 978-81-8274-657-2,
    • Price: ₹. 995/-
    • E-copy available
    V. Krishnappa and Princy Marin George
    2012

    A Critique of India’s Defence Offset Guidelines 2012

    A Critique of India’s Defence Offset Guidelines 2012

    Some of the provisions in the DOG do not seem to be well thought out, provide greater leeway to the foreign companies, and have a potentially negative potential on eligible manufacturing sector, particularly defence manufacturing.

    Laxman Kumar Behera
    September 03, 2012

    Don’t Shoot the Messenger: The ‘Un-Social’ Strategy

    The raging controversy on social media regulation post the violence in Assam has left the government in a losing perception battle. It is time to engage with the new media and exploit its potential to communicate strategically and not shoot the messenger

    Shruti Pandalai
    August 28, 2012

    The Problem of Grand Strategy

    This paper interrogates the concept of grand strategy. Its proponents argue that the absence of a publicly articulated and coherent grand strategy leads to incoherence in practice: armed forces acquire technologies without a strategy, government departments pursue their specific interests without reference to overarching national goals, and diplomats have a hard time explaining India’s behaviour to foreign interlocutors.

    V. Krishnappa
    July 2012

    Parliament and Defence Preparedness

    The leakage of the former Army Chief General V.K. Singh’s secret letter of 12 March 2012 to the Prime Minister, on large scale deficiencies in the Army, created an uproar in Parliament. While the issue of who leaked the letter and the motive behind the leak is under investigation by intelligence agencies, the bigger aspect that needs to be examined is how did we reach this level of hollowness, and what needs to be done to rectify the situation and avoid a recurrence in the future.

    Deepak Kapoor
    July 2012

    Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee: A Midway Solution

    The Chairman COSC will neither be the Commander of India’s Armed Forces nor will he be able to do justice to his advisory role because of the constraints that will affect his functioning in the present system.

    Rajneesh Singh
    August 07, 2012

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