Strategic Analysis

Considered Chaos: Revisiting Pakistan’s ‘Strategic Depth’ in Afghanistan

Pakistan’s historical insecurity towards India and the Islamisation of its military raises a curious question of strategy and identity rooted in Pakistan’s political genesis. This article examines the social and geostrategic factors underpinning Pakistan’s Afghanistan approach between its inheritance of security principles from colonial administration after Partition, and the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in 1996 and beyond. This article also critically analyses the existing link between the Taliban and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Ethnicity and Violent Conflicts in Northeast India: Analysing the Trends

This article is a moderate attempt to understand the various ideas associated with ethnicity and ethnic conflicts, and to study the nature, trends and typology of ethnic and insurgent conflicts in the North East Indian states (viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura) from 1990 to 2016, using the UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset.

India–Africa Co-Operation on Maritime Security: Need for Deeper Engagement

With approximately 74 million Sq Km and 20per cent of the global ocean, the Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean in the world. Alarmingly, this area has over the last two decades been plagued with unprecedented grave maritime security challenges. Dauntingly, these problems are dynamic and cross-jurisdictional. Consequently, combating them necessitates combined efforts among states. This article explores the efficacy of the maritime security architecture within the Indian Ocean rim countries, focusing on the co-operation between India and African states.

Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power

The reformist and open policy which Beijing adopted in late 1978 has transformed the overall structure of Chinese economy, society as well as its military. It is because of the success of this that China moved from an agrarian under-developed country to become the world’s factory. Its growth has made China the second largest global economy. The economic transformation has entailed significant investments in military modernisation and pursuit of advanced defence technology.

Pakistan Adrift: Navigating Troubled Waters

There is no dearth of literature emphasizing the role of domestic and international factors for the predominance of the military over civilian institutions in Pakistan. Some scholars relate it to military’s growing economic interests, while others attribute it to military’s ‘Guardians of the Nation’ complex involving a militarily superior India, unsettled borders and irredentist claims from Afghanistan that make external security a high priority.

Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances

The menace of terrorism has existed for centuries, but its modern, transnational version has ‘metastasized’ to the extent of threatening global peace and security. In 1975, security expert Brian Jenkins observed: ‘Terrorists want a lot of people watching and not a lot of people dead.’

Xi Jinping’s China

There are several significant events which preceded China’s constitutional amendment of March 2018 that removed the presidential term limit boosting Xi Jinping’s standing as China’s prospective leader-for-life. Born to a revolutionary leader, Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping spent most of his life serving the government, gradually working his way up the hierarchy. His precedence in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and authority over all political institutions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have arguably placed him at par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

India-China Relations: 1947–2000 – A Documentary Study (5 Volumes)

Generations of scholars and analysts working on India-China issues will be grateful to Mr. Avtar Singh Bhasin for the extraordinary service he has done to them by bringing into the public domain, in five volumes, important texts on the subject—over 2,500 of them—including many that are still not declassified by the Ministry of External Affairs and transferred for public access to the National Archives of India. He was able to do so because he got ready access to material classified as ‘secret’ or ‘top secret’ in the papers lying with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

The BRI and India’s Neighbourhood

Chinese President Xi Jinping initially proposed to build an ‘economic belt’ and a ‘21st-century Maritime Silk Road’ in 2013 which were formalised as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) in a document—‘Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road’—released by the National Reform and Development Commission in 2015.

India’s Policy Response to China’s Investment and Aid to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives: Challenges and Prospects

Regional strategic dynamics in South Asia is in a state of flux since the announcement of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China emphasises on the economic aspect of investment in infrastructures and energy projects, but strategic underpinning are very much apparent. China loan has created indebtedness in these countries and has helped Beijing to gain strategic foothold in the region which India considers as core to its security. India’s aid programme though focuses on the neighbourhood, it remains small compared to China and suffers from delivery deficit.