China's dependence on ship-borne energy resources forms the bedrock of its energy security. Critical to this is the issue of sea lane of communications (SLOCs) safety. SLOC safety is at once a non-conventional security challenge and a military one, which may trigger maritime conflicts. The difficulty in dealing with this challenge is that it is integral to geopolitics and hence subject to complicated major power relations. Geo-strategic politics will increasingly determine Beijing's SLOC policy of political cooperation and military hedging.

• You Ji
• May 2007
• Strategic Analysis

Chinese nationalism primarily represents Han nationalism and ignores ethnic minority sub-nationalisms and identities in the larger cause of the state's unity and integrity. The Chinese state calls for submerging of all minority identities within the predominant Han identity, for promoting national cohesion and nationalism, effectively precluding the possibility of the assertion of Tibetan nationalism and autonomy. Because of the suppression of Tibetans in China, a large number of them have fled and settled in India and elsewhere.

• Abanti Bhattacharya
• March 2007
• Strategic Analysis

Contemporary Japanese nationalism is the principal force behind Japan's gradual shift towards 'normal' statehood and what has been called as 'reluctant realism'. The nature and content of this nationalism is, however, very much dissimilar to that which characterized its militarist past. This nationalist streak is largely elitist and assumes softer undertones as it percolates down to the masses.

• Arpita Mathur
• January 2007
• Strategic Analysis

Ensuring access to crude oil and natural gas forms a crucial component of India's security calculus. It also critically underlines the significance of sea transportation through which much of these vital resources are traded. With India virtually insular in terms of its land communications, its trade interests are increasingly focused on the maritime domain.

• Gurpreet S Khurana
• January 2007
• Strategic Analysis

The global political architecture is undergoing a transformation with power increasingly shifting from the West to the East, according to most political observers.1 The two most populous nations, China and India, are on their way to becoming economic powerhouses and are shedding their reticence in asserting their global profiles.

• Harsh V. Pant
• October 2006
• Strategic Analysis

Japanese foreign policy and security perceptions have undergone a perceptible and steady change over the past decade, especially under the leadership of former Prime Minister Koizumi (2001-2006). Its support for the US war on terror was a significant step in its growing international politico-security profile.

• Arpita Mathur
• July 2006
• Strategic Analysis

This paper seeks to understand the political dynamics that operates behind reforms in China. To interpret the political influences that have, and are, determining the course and trajectory of the reform process, two themes have been chosen. First, an examination of ideological trends (determinants) and their relationship with economic reforms, and the second, as an important corollary, the behaviour of factions (variables) within the Communist Party of China (CPC) that have differing

• Raviprasad Narayanan
• April 2006
• Strategic Analysis

China’s relations with Angola have traditionally been friendly due to the fact that both countries were and still are ruled by Marxist Leninist regimes, but until recently the PRC’s presence in the country was rather insignificant. However, in the last five years or so China’s influence in the country has grown rapidly. From a marginal position in Beijing’s foreign policy priorities, Angola has move to the very forefront of China’s foreign relations. Today without question Angola is China’s most important partner on the African continent.

• Lara Horta
• April 2006
• Strategic Analysis

The end of the Cold War, the September 11 terrorists’ attacks, preponderance of US power and globalisation have shaped the present world order and posed new opportunities and challenges for China. China’s need to fulfill its grand strategy of acquiring comprehensive national power within this external environment and overcome the existing challenges has given rise to its post-Cold War foreign policy strategy. Given the challenges it faces, its primary need is to ensure continuance of a peaceful environment to sustain its reform and modernisation programme.

• Abanti Bhattacharya
• January 2006
• Strategic Analysis

Electoral politics in Taiwan reflects the popular ambivalence in articulation of its political and national identity. This ambivalence is testing the strength of nascent domestic democratic institutions. Taiwanese democratisation has also introduced a new variable in crossstrait relations that China and the US both have to contend with. Greater democratisation of Taiwanese politics and the struggle over the country’s national and cultural identity is making the management of crossstrait relations more complex for all three parties, i.e., Taipei, Beijing and Washington.

• Sonika Gupta
• January 2006
• Strategic Analysis

By extending the notion of national security to the domains of space and the earth’s poles, the Chinese government has expressed its determination to undertake every measure to safeguard interests even in areas beyond the national border.

• Gunjan Singh
• July 14, 2015
• Comment

Even if China has not stated that it cannot settle the border question with India in the immediate future, its actions certainly hint at its preference for border peace and control over an early resolution.

• M.S. Prathibha
• July 14, 2015
• Comment

Indian Navy must focus fresh attention on the challenge posed by the Pakistan-China maritime nexus in the Western Indian Ocean.

• Abhijit Singh
• July 08, 2015
• Comment

In China’s foreign policy setting, the logic of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘history’ are employed or applied selectively as is evident from its reservation on India’s oil exploration in the South China Sea and its own plans to implement the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir despite India’s reservations.

• Rumel Dahiya , Jagannath P. Panda
• June 29, 2015
• Policy Brief

The revised defence guidelines have added value to the US-Japan partnership and the fundamental shift in Japanese security policy complements the US call upon Japan to shoulder greater security responsibility as a partner.

• Titli Basu
• May 29, 2015
• Issue Brief

As the dust settles after the visit of Prime Minister Modi to China, it is time to take a calm and dispassionate look at where we stand in the context of Sino-Indian relations.

• R. S. Kalha
• May 25, 2015
• Comment

In today’s India, the narrow nationalism, if not paranoia, built on the burden of 1962 seems only artificial. But, can Modi and Xi move beyond this burden and change the bilateral discourse? Modi needs to be metaphysical not just pragmatic.

• P. Stobdan
• May 14, 2015
• Comment

Modi and Xi share several similarities: their rise to the top, the popular nationalism they ride, the power they wield, and their domestic as well as foreign policy priorities.

• Avinash Godbole
• May 13, 2015
• Issue Brief

For better operational cooperation, India and China need to go beyond rudimentary agreements on combating piracy and crime in the Western Indian Ocean. They need to work out an acceptable framework for functional collaboration and create positive momentum in favour of greater strategic interaction.

• Abhijit Singh
• May 11, 2015
• Comment

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.

• Mukul Sanwal
• March 30, 2015
• Comment