Strategic Analysis

India’s Policy Response to China’s Investment and Aid to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives: Challenges and Prospects

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.

The BRI and Sino-Indian Geo-Economic Competition in Bangladesh: Coping Strategy of a Small State

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.

A Road Through Pakistan, and What This Means for India

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.

Sino-Indian Dynamics in Littoral Asia – The View from New Delhi

China’s growing stakes in the Indian Ocean, in particular the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) expanding profile in South Asia, has caused deep concern in India, where many believe Chinese naval deployments have shrunk New Delhi’s traditional sphere of influence. China’s inroads in India’s strategic backwaters— in particular, growing PLAN submarine forays—are viewed with suspicion in New Delhi, where many are convinced of the need for a counter-China strategy.

Critical Analysis of India’s Safeguards Agreement INFCIRC/754 with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

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.

Decimating Democracy in 140 Characters or Less: Pakistan Army’s Subjugation of State Institutions through Twitter

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.

Islamism and intelligence in South Asia: militancy, politics and security

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.

Challenges in Europe: Indian Perspectives

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.

No Place for Russia: European Security Institutions Since 1989

The dissolution of the Soviet Union, conflicts in former Soviet republics and in the Balkans, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria, the war in Georgia and the confrontation in Ukraine—the last three decades have seen a series of events which affected the European security agenda. Since 1989, Russia has been participating in European affairs as a member of several forums and has been a party to multiple agreements.

A Life Plucked Out of the Archives

It is not easy to turn somebody’s personal archive, even if it is well kept, into a book ? that too a biography ? without falling in love with the person, his times, the ideological cross-currents he swam with or against, and the historical significance of the character. Such efforts are really commendable when the person of the archives leaves an indelible mark as an ‘ideological beacon and moral compass’ to a leader of consequence, who steered a nation through one of the most tumultuous periods of its history.