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

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar. They accused Qatar of supporting extremist and terror groups in the region, having close ties with Iran, undermining the security and stability of the Gulf region, and using the satellite television network Al Jazeera as a propaganda machine. They also put up a list of demands before Qatar, to be accepted within 10 days in order to end the boycott.

• Prasanta Kumar Pradhan |
• July 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal has sent oil prices soaring again. Even prior to the May 8, 2018 announcement, after falling to below $30 a barrel in early 2016, oil prices were on the boil again, belying the projections of market analysts, including those of the respected International Energy Agency (IEA), that the era of $100 plus per barrel of oil was over. The projections were based on the assumption that nations would move increasingly away from oil—and coal—to meet their carbon mitigation commitments under the Paris Agreement.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal |
• July 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Of late the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is receiving sincere attention from its member countries as an organisation that has the potential to transform the region’s political and economic future. This is because there are several bilateral and sub-regional ongoing projects that are seeking to connect the region and bind them together into one economic whole. Apart from this, after the cancellation of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit in 2017, many would see the BIMSTEC as an alternative to SAARC.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik |
• July 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Human security as a concept contends that the appropriate referent for peace and security should be the individual instead of the state. This Essay explores whether a human security-centred approach, i.e., a focus on the individual citizen’s concerns and security complements rather than contradicts state and national security.

• D. Padma Kumar Pillay |
• July 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis

Wherever Indians have migrated, they have carried with them their culture, which has subsequently served to build multi-layered bridges with their country of origin. The article studies the Indian migration to the French territory of Reunion Islands located in the southwestern Indian Ocean and delves into various factors, including the historical, demographic, socio-economic aspects of the evolution of the Indian diaspora.

• Ankita Bhattacharjee |
• July 2018 |
• Strategic Analysis