In What is Iran?, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS, University of London, tells the story of Iran’s international affairs and domestic politics with the help of five musical pieces that he found emblematic of the subject matter. The book discusses Iran as a global object, with a post-national approach beyond conventional understanding of Iranian politics.

• Javad Heiran-Nia |
• May 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The year 2020 marked 75 years of India’s association with the United Nations. India was one of the founding members of the UN when its institutional edifice was built in 1945. Since then, the concept of UN centrality in international peace and security matters is one of the features of Indian foreign policy. Over the decades, India played an active role in the UN’s political process and significantly contributed to its policies and programmes. At the UN, India stood at the fore of the struggle against colonialism and apartheid.

• Rajeesh Kumar |
• May 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

More than seven decades after Pakistan’s creation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah continues to captivate both his critics and admirers. While the former excoriate him for exploiting religion to achieve his goal, the latter hail him as the Qaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) who single-handedly secured a homeland for the Muslims of British India.

• Amit Cowshish |
• May 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

On February 18, SKY News UK trumpeted that ‘Lockdown is working! COVID-19 infection rate plummets in England’. Yet, as Figure 1 shows, Sweden with voluntary social distancing guidelines experienced an earlier and faster decline of COVID deaths per capita. The other interesting feature about the figure is how the mortality curves are policy-invariant, mimicking one another regardless of policy interventions between Sweden, the UK and the EU countries. The virus infection, hospitalization and mortality curves seem to rise and fall by seasons, independent of lockdowns.

• Ramesh Thakur , David Redman |
• May 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The policies, actions and postures of the United States Administration towards Bangladesh from March 1971 to December 1971 form the subject matter of this article.

• Jayanta Kumar Ray |
• March 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The article looks back on China’s proposal and promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to Vietnam, as well as Vietnam’s official position and response to this initiative. The implementation of agreements between the two countries is analysed by evaluating two key areas of the BRI in Vietnam, namely facilities connectivity, and trade and investment. China was active in promoting the BRI, whereas Vietnam welcomed the initiative with caution. Cooperation in the two key areas has been promoted.

• Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa , Pham Thao Nguyen |
• March 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The role of Indonesia in the South China Sea (SCS) disputes has been limited to being part of the ASEAN team since the country is not one of the active claimants. Jakarta has tried to sidestep its maritime row with Beijing by emphasizing the lack of a “territorial dispute’ between the two countries. The article analyzes the role and position of Indonesia in the SCS disputes and argues that despite Indonesia’s reluctance to be an active or direct claimant state, developments in recent years have dragged her into the disputes and she will remain involved until a mutually acceptable solution is achieved in the overarching problem of the SCS.

• Nehginpao Kipgen |
• March 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The article aims to trace the surveying and mapping of China during the 252-year period, prior to 1960 in order to connect it with the evolution of the Sino-Indian boundary. What emerges is that the Manchu was dependent on foreigners for the first modern maps of China made to scale with longitude/latitude lines. Through these maps no territorial claim against India had been made.

• Sunil Khatri |
• March 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The article makes an attempt to bring to the fore the various factors which are considered in the due process of attribution of a cyber-attack and the correlation of credible attribution with cyber deterrence. The focal point of the article is a three-step approach to model the decision-making process behind attribution of cyber-attacks using Bayesian Belief Networks and a case study to elucidate on the functioning of the model.

• Munish Sharma |
• January 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is a prominent arena in international politics, in terms of trade, tourism, population, among other aspects. Several countries, some unconnected geographically, have shown interest in these waters. These entities offer financial, technical, infrastructural and capacity-building support, and security services to several IOR countries. India, the prominent resident power of this ocean, and others, consider this development unnecessary, uncalled for and unacceptable.

• Sainandan S. Iyer , Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay , Sridhar D. Iyer |
• January 2021 |
• Strategic Analysis