Comment & Briefs

MoD can leapfrog many of the 11 stages in the procurement programme by taking the measures outlined to fulfil the urgent requirements of the Air Force.

The nostalgia among a section of the AKP to recreate the Ottoman past through economic and geopolitical integration has been the driving force behind Turkey’s recent assertive postures in regional matters including the Qatar crisis.

The CDU’s likely coalition partners are the Green Party and the Free Democrats. Such a coalition can work because all partners share a common design on European Unity and socio-economic policies at home.

While thermonuclear weapons are not necessary for maintaining a credible deterrent, they serve the purpose of enabling India to make effective use of its relatively limited fissile material stockpile.

The India-Japan ‘action-oriented partnership’ is founded on the pillars of mutuality of interests, shared universal values and commonality of vision in the Indo-Pacific.

It is perhaps time to regulate incendiary sermons which radicalise vulnerable sections of society.

The crisis over North Korea’s reckless but successful pursuit of nuclear- weapon capability and the misguided response thereto by the United States is taking the world nearer to an unnecessary and perfectly avoidable catastrophe.

The nuclear escalation risk cannot be contained by the revision of India’s minimum deterrence policy but with a change in Pakistan’s behaviour.

Pakistan’s responses with reference to the US encouraging India to play a greater role in Afghanistan raise an intriguing question: were Trump’s statements on India part of a gambit to extract cooperation from Pakistan?

This policy brief attempts to suggest six critical policy imperatives that must act as guidelines for the ongoing attempt at defence reforms.