A flurry of changes in India’s national security apparatus in the recent past have been the subject of public discussion. These include the constitution of a Defence Procurement Committee under the chairmanship of the National Security Advisor (NSA), the replacement of the Cabinet Secretary with the NSA as the head of India’s Strategic Policy Group (SPG), and the appointment of three new Deputy National Security Advisors (Dy. NSAs), and a Military Advisor (only the second such appointment in a period of four years). Further, the mandate of the Dy.

• Zubin Dash |
• November 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

The question of autonomy or self-determination in Myanmar goes back to the country’s pre-independence era. It is an important historical issue which unified and divided the country. The idea of forming a union government that would grant equal status to all citizens brought together different ethnic groups at the Panglong conference in 1947. However, the country’s conflicts remain and efforts are on to address the decades-old problems. One possible solution widely discussed is federalism.

• Nehginpao Kipgen |
• November 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Peloponnesian war was fought from 431 to 401 BC between the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta and the Athenian Empire, known as the Delian League led by Pericles, the ruler of Athens. In the initial phase of the war, Thucydides (460–395 BC) was removed from command by the Athenian government after he failed as the commanding general to prevent a Spartan occupation of Amphipolis. He was exiled for 20 years. This came as a blessing in disguise for the scholar in him. The exiled general now had the scholarly atmosphere of solitude to write his book as the war was fought.

• P. K. Gautam |
• November 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article examines India’s efforts to achieve food security. It traces the problem, from the inadequate production of food grains during colonial times, to the challenges of procurement, storage and distribution of cereals in post-independence India, after achieving self-sufficiency in food production. The establishment of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and its evolution into the Targeted PDS and the National Food Security Act are outlined. The role of the Food Corporation of India and the efforts to improve it, are discussed.

• D. Padma Kumar Pillay , T.K. Manoj Kumar |
• November 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Being highly porous, poorly guarded and located along a remote, underdeveloped, insurgency-prone region and proximate to one of the world’s largest five opium producing areas, the India–Myanmar border is vulnerable to the activities of insurgents and drugs and arms traffickers as well as criminals. Although the Indian government has been alive to the threats that emanate from a poorly guarded India–Myanmar international border, its attention towards the problem has been woefully inadequate.

• Pushpita Das |
• November 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Mara E. Karlin in her book, Building Militaries in Fragile States: Challenges for the United States, investigates when, why and under what circumstances, US efforts to build partner militaries for internal defence succeeded and also offers some suggestions for improvement. The efforts examined include key decisions, programme execution and the nature of the US involvement with the partner state. She criticises US military interventions in what she calls ‘fragile states’ as unsustainable, thinly successful so far and fundamentally flawed.

• Harriet Njoki Mboce |
• September 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has provided a most readable account of his upbringing, his stint in the US National Security Council and his ambassadorships to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations. With his political sense and candour, he explains to readers how after winning easy military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, American efforts there so quickly lost direction and became examples of how not to intervene in difficult areas. Having ready access to high-ranking US administration officials, Ambassador Khalilzad was luckier than his American homologues serving in foreign capitals.

• Jayant Prasad |
• September 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan, has quietly functioned as one of the main arteries through which Afghanistan’s massive opium crop reaches the outer world. Six of the nine major drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan transit through Balochistan en route to Iran, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Afghanistan’s opium production peaked at 9,000 tons in 2017, on account of the country’s rampant instability and lack of viable options for families to sustain themselves.

• Sandhya Jain |
• September 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Power trading across borders is not a new concept, even in the subcontinent. However, it has been sporadic and unstructured and often not in strict consonance with the requirements of national security. This article seeks to make out a case for using energy security and cross border power trade, as one of the ‘soft power’ tools to further our national security.

• Sanjay Mitra , Richa Misra |
• September 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

At the outset, we must remind ourselves that Indo–Bangladesh cooperation began in the battlefield of 1971. As a freedom fighter diplomat, one recalls with deep appreciation and gratitude the whole-hearted support we received from the Government and people of India during the critical days of our nationhood. We pay homage to those brave Indian soldiers who laid down their lives for our independence. We also pay tribute to the valiant war veterans who fought with us in our War of Independence.

• Syed Muazzem Ali |
• September 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis