Chinese President Xi Jinping initially proposed to build an ‘economic belt’ and a ‘21st-century Maritime Silk Road’ in 2013 which were formalised as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) in a document—‘Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’—released by the National Reform and Development Commission in 2015.

• Bhumitra Chakma |
• May 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

Regional strategic dynamics in South Asia is in a state of flux since the announcement of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China emphasises on the economic aspect of investment in infrastructures and energy projects, but strategic underpinning are very much apparent. China loan has created indebtedness in these countries and has helped Beijing to gain strategic foothold in the region which India considers as core to its security. India’s aid programme though focuses on the neighbourhood, it remains small compared to China and suffers from delivery deficit.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik |
• May 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article explains the Sino-Indian geo-economic competition in Bangladesh in the wake of the former’s launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. Beijing intends to fund various large-scale infrastructure projects in Bangladesh under the BRI which has prompted India to make its own offer of economic assistance to counter the Chinese initiative. The Sino-Indian competition has created challenges and opportunities for Bangladesh. Dhaka is pursuing a balanced policy to manage the competition and advance its own interests.

• Bhumitra Chakma |
• May 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

Pakistan’s largest donor has been the United States of America, granting around $ 70 bn in aid. In 2015, China, as part of its One Belt One Road global ambitions, promised Pakistan $ 46 bn (since revised to $ 60 bn), for a road running from its border to the port of Gwadar. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is being seen as a ‘fate-changer’ for Pakistan. CPEC could change Pakistan’s fate in more ways than one; this article explores the domestic and regional consequences of China’s involvement in Pakistan, and what this will mean for South Asia and for India.

• S. Akbar Zaidi |
• May 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

The ongoing dialogue between the US and the Taliban has generated lot of interest among strategic analysts in the region and beyond. There are indications that the Taliban are hardening their position as the US appears to be in a haste to pull off an agreement.

• Ashok K. Behuria , Yaqoob-ul-Hassan , Sanya Saroha |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

India’s rejection of the BRI for strategic reasons does not mean it is resistant to Chinese investments, which are—to the contrary—both welcome and rapidly increasing. Indian strategy in this respect is in accord with the changing character of the international system, where strategic competition co-exists with economic cooperation as well as competition. In contemporary international politics, structurally driven conflictive behaviour is modified by high levels of strategic and economic interdependence.

• Rajesh Basrur |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

India concluded a fresh safeguards agreement (INFCIRC/754) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2009. All aspects of safeguards measures including the items to be safeguarded were deliberated upon, to ensure that India’s safeguards agreement does not result in giving any flexibility to India to use safeguarded items for unsafeguarded activities. The safeguards agreement INFCIRC/754 came with many additional features. Some of them are a result of the IAEA’s efforts to bring uniformity to subsidiary arrangements and structure and format for reporting requirements.

• K. L. Ramakumar |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Directorate General of Inter Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR), or the Pakistan Army’s media wing has perfected the form of subverting democracy and showcasing the dominant position of the Army in the entire Pakistani polity. This article sets out to prove the same in a quantified manner. By analysing almost 25 tweets from the official account of DG-ISPR in the period 2016 ?18, the article tries to quantify, using the Merkel-Croissant model of embedded democracy, the priorities of the Pakistan Army.

• Akshat Upadhyay |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

State sponsorship of terrorism is a complex and often ignored subject in contemporary security studies discourses. As stated by the British military historian Adrian Weale and noted in the foreword of Islamism and Intelligence in South Asia, ‘[i]nternational terrorism rarely happens without a state sponsor, directly or indirectly’ (p. x). Covert and overt support to terrorist groups to fulfil the state’s interest was a feature of international terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s.

• Zainab Akhter |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

Europe is a vast expanse of land marked by diversity in terms of people, places, preferences, cultures and beliefs. Scholarly works, however, often reduce European plurality to one or a few countries and this becomes starker when studying the dynamics of India’s relations with the continent. Therefore, focusing on the European Union (EU) rather than Europe makes it more appropriate and fathomable when trying to understand contemporary Europe and the emerging contours of its relations with India.

• Shreya Pandey |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis