India

After six years, in June 2004 India and Pakistan resumed the composite dialogue process that covers eight baskets of issues agreed upon in Male in 1997 between Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Nawaz Sharif. The eight baskets are Jammu and Kashmir; Siachen; Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project; Sir Creek; Terrorism and Drug Trafficking; Economic and Commercial Cooperation; Peace and Security; and Promotion of Friendly Exchanges in various fields. The last round of talks was held in October 1998 in Islamabad, on Peace and Security, CBMs and Jammu and Kashmir.

• Ashutosh Misra
• April 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Much has been said about the India-China-Russia strategic triangle, a post- Cold War idea mooted by former Russian Premier Yevgeny Primakov.

• Abanti Bhattacharya
• April 2004
• Strategic Analysis

India’s policy with Southeast Asia, which took a distinctive shape since the early 1990s in the form of the Look East policy, has been a multipronged approach encompassing political, strategic and economic aspects. Apart from establishing institutional linkages with ASEAN and strengthening bilateral relations with its member states, especially in the field of defence, India has been an enthusiastic participant and supporter of multilateralism in Asia-Pacific.

• G. V. C. Naidu
• April 2004
• Strategic Analysis

India shares 4096 km (Assam-262 km, Tripura-856 km, Mizoram- 18 km, Meghalaya-443 km, West Bengal-2,217 km) long land boundary with Bangladesh (earlier East Pakistan). The Indo-Bangladesh border, which came into existence after India’s partition in 1947 gave rise to many questions as to the interpretation and implementation of the boundary so drawn. An effort was made to solve the outstanding border disputes with erstwhile East Pakistan and the Nehru-Noon Accord was signed in 1958. While some of the disputes were solved, many continued to haunt even after Bangladesh came into existence.

• N. S. Jamwal
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

The paper discusses Track II Diplomacy between India and the United States with a special focus on the post-1998 period. Its scope is limited to Track II deliberations that have relevance to foreign policy issues. An effort has been made to assess the efficacy of Track II exercises on the basis of certain parameters developed for this study.

The findings of the study are based on the responses received from some experts in this field in India during direct interviews with them. Thus, the paper provides an Indian perspective.

• Bhabani Mishra
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

The paper attempts to analyse the issues in Central Asia in the context of India’s security. The paper poses a question as to what the region of Central Asia means for India today. The author argues that international attention is being focused on redefining the importance of Central Asian in the changing regional and international context. Since its reappearance, many suitors have been seeking affinity, proximity and legitimacy with the region on political, strategic, cultural and economic grounds.

• P. Stobdan
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Shri N N Vohra, Shri K Santhanam, Director IDSA, Ladies and Gentlemen:

• Ved Marwah
• October 2003
• Strategic Analysis

Environmental crisis in the rural areas of developing countries is increasingly becoming an important cause of cross-border migration of population and South Asia is no exception to this phenomenon. Such movement of population in the Indo-Bangladesh context is generating a range of destabilising socio-political, economic, ethnic and communal tensions in India. It has embittered Indo-Bangladesh relations, causing tensions between the two countries.

• Sarfaraz Alam
• July 2003
• Strategic Analysis

• Sumita Kumar
• July 2003
• Strategic Analysis

American security policy towards South Asia can basically be divided into three stages: balance of power in the Cold War era, beyond balance of power after the end of Cold War, and new balance of power after September 11.

• Zhang Guihong
• April 2003
• Strategic Analysis