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

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.

• Aleksei Zakharov |
• March 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

The process of state-building in China has taken place in phases, beginning with the efforts of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the Nationalist government (1928–1949) and later communist rule (1949- present). The literature on the subject has generated a debate on the Chinese endeavours towards state-building with regard to the question of institution-building, the legacy of coercion, intimidation and economic transformation.

• Priyanka Pandit |
• January 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

Can non-Western sources of classical thought enhance our understanding about issues of statecraft, strategy-making, foreign policy, war and peace? Is it important to study such non-Western sources? And, can such studies contribute towards creating more effective strategies of war and peace in the contemporary world? These questions are particularly significant at a time when there is increasing interest in tapping non-Western sources of international relations theory to identify more effective ways of addressing contemporary strategic issues.

• Akshay Joshi |
• January 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Sykes–Picot Agreement, the Iranian Revolution, the Gulf Wars, and other events that have unfolded after the Arab Uprising (the Arab Spring), have altered the course of West Asian history. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the new architects determining the course and its trajectory; also significant is the presence of foreign powers. As is evident that oil has been a crucial factor behind the West’s interests in the region. The article states that the new Cold War can be explained as a variance between Iran and Saudi Arabia; and the situation manoeuvred by foreign actors.

• Vrushal T. Ghoble |
• January 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis

Over the past four decades, the relationship between Iran and the US has been marked by conflicts, ranging from hostage-taking and sanctions to military confrontation. The present research aims at explaining the dispute by referring to the mindsets of the two countries’ leaders and exploring their epistemological origins. The main question this article seeks to answer is: what are the roots of disputes in US–Iran relationship in the post-Revolutionary era?

• Mohammad Reza Chitsazian , Seyed Mohammad Ali Taghavi |
• January 2019 |
• Strategic Analysis