Internal Security

About Centre

The Centre focuses on issues that challenge India’s internal security. Secessionist movements based on ethnic identities in the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir have been contesting the Indian state through violent means for decades. The Left Wing Extremism movement based on Marxist-Leninist ideology is engaged in a struggle to overthrow the democratic structure of the Indian state. Intermittent terrorist attacks perpetrated by foreign and home grown terrorist groups have been disrupting peace and political order in the country. Infiltration, illegal migration, and trafficking of arms and narcotics are not only breaching the country’s international borders but are also aggravating its security situation. The research efforts of the Centre are focused on analysing the trends, patterns, causes, and implications of these threats and challenges, and suggesting policy alternatives. The Centre’s research agenda includes: left wing extremism, insurgencies in the Northeast India, cross border terrorism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, global and national trends in terrorism, management of India’s international borders and security of its coasts.

The Centre also undertakes various projects entrusted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Security Council Secretariat on matters internal security. The Centre has a mix of civilian scholars and officers deputed from the armed forces and central armed police forces.

The Centre has a bilateral agreement to collaborate with the Border Security Forces’ Institute for Border Management and Strategic Studies.

Brajesh Mishra’s Legacy to National Security and Diplomacy

As the first national security adviser of India, Brajesh Mishra’s contribution towards building a viable national security management system will always be remembered.

Arvind Gupta
September 30, 2012
IDSA Comments

PM’s address to police chiefs: A Wake up Call

The Prime Minister’s address highlighted critical threats to internal security and expected counter-measures with the aim of refocusing the attention of the police forces on these vital issues.

Vivek Chadha
September 12, 2012
IDSA Comments

Violence in Bodo Areas: The Risks of Conceding ‘Exclusive’ Ethnic Homelands

The recent violence in the Bodo areas indicates the risks associated with the formation of exclusive ethnic homelands based on the demands of the majority population (belonging to an ethnic group) inhabiting a particular geographical area. Formation of such exclusive ethnic homelands may prove to be both an assault on the pluralistic ethos of our country and a nightmare for minority groups living in that terrain.

Namrata Goswami
September 12, 2012
IDSA Comments

India’s Maoists: The Party shall be over!

Although there has been little change in the influence of Naxalites across the country over the past couple of years, patience and concerted effort shall no doubt make the Maoists irrelevant.

P. V. Ramana
September 07, 2012
IDSA Comments

Don’t Shoot the Messenger: The ‘Un-Social’ Strategy

The raging controversy on social media regulation post the violence in Assam has left the government in a losing perception battle. It is time to engage with the new media and exploit its potential to communicate strategically and not shoot the messenger

Shruti Pandalai
August 28, 2012
IDSA Comments

Violence in the Bodo Areas: Deciphering the Causes

The need of the hour is to activate a clean and transparent record keeping of land by the state so that violence based on the fear of outsiders forcibly taking away the most precious commodity, land, can be effectively averted.

Namrata Goswami
August 09, 2012
IDSA Comments

Assam in turmoil

The ongoing violence between the Bodos and the minority Muslim community is a result of increasing tensions over issues of land grab and illegal migration

Multiple Rebel ‘Naga Armies’ in Nagaland

Without rooting out the parallel structures of an illegitimate economy and violence existing in Nagaland, efforts undertaken by Naga civil society to bring about peaceful reconciliation would only deliver sub-optimal results.

Debating the Interlocutors’ Report on Jammu and Kashmir

There is much scope for imaginative thinking on the desirability, compatibility of goals and feasibility of the political, cultural and socio-economic components of the new compact as suggested by the Interlocutors.

Arpita Anant
July 04, 2012
IDSA Comments

ULFA Talks: Focusing the Dialogue on Resolvables

It is important that the ULFA talks do not get enmeshed on issues that create divisions, counter-claims and result in lack of consensus leading to a locked positional dialogue with no resolution in sight.