Strategic Analysis

India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often touted as India’s Deng Xiaoping, expected to lead the country on a path of economic reform and accelerated growth.1 While Modi rose to power on an economic mandate, it is his foreign policy that has received the most attention in the media. Modi has been criticised by the media, the public and the opposition parties for taking several overseas trips in his short tenure in office.

• Aakriti Tandon
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Prof P. Stobdan (Senior Fellow, IDSA)’s reading of history fails to predict Tibet’s future from the beginning. The Dalai Lama has informed the Tibetan people about his thinking on the succession issue since as early as 1969. Later on September 24, 2011, the Dalai Lama took a definite position on the succession issue, where the Dalai Lama made it very clear that the decision to continue or not continue with the institution of the Dalai Lama lies with the Tibetan people. The real reason for ‘Younghusband’s visit’ to Tibet was not to lay a telegraph line.

• Tenzin Tsultrim
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Inhabited by numerous tribes and sub-tribes with fierce clan loyalties, the north-east of India has been plagued by identity-inspired insurgencies since independence. The first of these insurgencies was that of the Naga National Council (NNC) in the mid-1950s. Subsequent decades saw the outbreak of other, similar, insurgencies among the Meiteis, Mizos, Assamese and Boroks.

• Pushpita Das
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The concept of ‘Vivir Bien´ or ´Good Life’ has emerged in Bolivia’s political, policy and diplomatic discourse after the ascension to power of Evo Morales in December 2005, the first person of indigenous ethnicity to be President of Bolivia. In South Asia and other parts of the world much is known about Bhutan’s Index of Happiness, but little is heard about ‘Vivir Bien’ or ‘Good Life’, the ideology of Life, Politics and Diplomacy emanating from Bolivia, in the heart of Latin America.

• Sandeep Chakravorty
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The recent Australian decision to extend civilian nuclear cooperation to India, overriding its own long-term principled position, is no ordinary development. Taking that as a starting point, this article seeks to set out the context and rationale for an all-round and long-term closer relationship between the two countries.

• Vishal Ranjan
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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In the last two decades, cross-border gas pipelines have become an integral part of discourse on India’s energy security. Successive reports from the government and the private sector have envisaged an important role for cross-border gas pipeline projects in India. After engaging in negotiations for several years, the Indian Government finally joined the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline over the Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline (IPI) and the Myanmar–Bangladesh–India pipeline (MBI).

• Sanket Sudhir Kulkarni
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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This article analyses India’s economic, military and political rise in the international state system. It concludes that India is on the rise in all three power dimensions, underpinned by a larger share of global GDP. However, it also identifies the constraints on the way. On matters concerning its economy, India lags behind in industrial prowess, innovation, socio-economic development and financial strength. While modernising its defence capabilities, it faces obstacles due to budget issues, institutional constraints and a weak defence industry.

• Samuel Bergenwall
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in November 2012 and the President of the People’s Republic of China in March 2013. Ever since, under his leadership as the Chinese President, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been progressively tightening its control over the media. In a Communist structure, the media is perceived to be the ‘mouthpiece’ of the Party and is supposed to be used for propaganda. Media is a very essential tool in spreading the government agenda and controlling the public discourse.

• Gunjan Singh
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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A watershed moment for nuclear security was reached when global leaders from more than 50 countries including India and other organisations met successively over six years (2010–2016) to develop an effective and sustainable plan for global nuclear security. At the end of six years, much has been accomplished to improve and upgrade nuclear security in several countries. Despite this perseverance, threats to nuclear security still remain undiminished, primarily because wrong people nursing a malicious agenda desire nuclear and radiological materials.

• Reshmi Kazi
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Over the last few years, it has been a roller coaster ride for the oil markets. From $110 a barrel in 2010, prices began dropping from June 2014 and finally dropped to below $30 a barrel in January 2016. Then from the end of the first quarter of 2016, prices started recovering and have been hovering around $50 a barrel since May

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• September 2016 |
• Strategic Analysis
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