Yogesh Joshi

Clemenceau’s famous statement—‘War is too important to be left to the generals’—represents an essential conflict in civil?military relations during crisis situations, especially with regard to the demarcation of boundaries for civil and military authority in the conduct of war. Where and when, in the conduct of war, should the political class step down and military commanders take over? Or, since, as the Clausewitzian dictum of war being a continuation of politics suggests, can war ever be considered a purely military enterprise?

• Published: July 2013
• Journal of Defence Studies

Nuclear force development is at present an attractive means for Pakistan to attract international political and financial assistance, while salving the paranoias of its security establishment. Improvement in the state-society relationship could reduce the domestic appeal of endless nuclear expansion as other, more sustainable, resources become available to the state for building economic growth and security.

• Published: March 08, 2013
• Issue Brief

There is a need to debate both the necessity and desirability of nuclear disarmament without being burdened by India’s idealistic aspirations and unfounded assumptions about the heft that this premature superpower carries in international politics.

• Published: October 10, 2012
• Issue Brief

Given the fact that there is a lot of noise being made to prod India into doing more on nuclear disarmament counter-intuitively suggests that India is actually doing very less on the issue. What explains India's reluctance?

• Published: September 05, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The Indo-US nuclear deal not only opened the gates of international nuclear trade for India, but it also showed that India was ready to take its rightful place among the comity of nations as an emerging power. For three long years from 2005 to 2008, the world's strongest and largest democracies were involved in intense diplomatic parleys. At stake in these negotiations was not only the normative order in the form of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), but also the very existence of the ruling political dispensation in India.

• Published: March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

To say that DRDO scientists have no right to think or pass judgements over strategic doctrines may be correct in terms of policy requirements but is certainly not rich academically.

• Published: October 03, 2011
• IDSA Comments

In a world where US primacy will remain a distinctive feature for a considerable time to come, India will require American global leadership to realise its own national interests.

• Published: August 05, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan is the main outlier in negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament over a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). Its ceaseless quest for parity with India are not likely to meet with success. Meanwhile, nuclear stocks within Pakistan pose a danger to Pakistan itself.

• Published: February 11, 2011
• IDSA Comments

On any subject, there are always two stories to tell- or may be more. This book seems to do the same when it comes to the debate over the nuclearisation of the South Asian region. As the title of the book suggests, Brig. (Retd.) Naeem Salik seeks to revisit the history of South Asian nuclear weapons from Pakistan’s perspective. The author feels that the story told, so far, has been obtuse and has worked to the detriment of Pakistan’s interests. In order to create a balance in the literature, the author claims to provide ‘dispassionate and objective analysis’

• Published: January 2011
• Journal of Defence Studies

The conflict over rare earths is not only a consequence of the monopoly amassed by China but is also reflective of the current flux in global power hierarchies.

• Published: December 28, 2010
• IDSA Comments