Strategic Analysis

Prachanda’s proposal for trilateral cooperation between India, Nepal and China seems reasonable on the face of it. However, both China and Nepal should be aware that it will create a lot of misunderstandings in India. The reasons for this are as follows:

• Arvind Gupta
• September 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Ancient Indian political thought as given in the niti (moral law) lays down that matsya nyaya (big fish swallowing the smaller fish), which is a law of nature, must be eradicated. However, in spite of best intentions it continues to prevail in internal and international politics. Society is bound together by dharma (justice), which is the great protecting principle, and economic prosperity, moral welfare and cultural advancements are the functions of justice.

• P. K. Gautam
• September 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, made the trilateral proposal during his official visit to India in April 2013. This was the third time since 2010 that Prachanda had raised this issue. This concept seems to be a modified version of his earlier ‘equidistance policy’, which was declared after he became prime minister in September 2008. He proposed trilateral cooperation for the first time in October 2010 after visiting Beijing.

• Nihar R. Nayak
• September 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, the chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN) (Maoist), visited India on April 27–30, 2013, shortly after he had returned from a week-long visit to China. During his visits to China and India, Prachanda proposed trilateral cooperation between India, Nepal and China. Although he assured India that this trilateral cooperation would be founded on the bilateral relations that Nepal already shares with India, he clearly did not elaborate on the nature of this trilateral cooperation and the issues that need to be discussed within this framework.

• Editorial Board
• September 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The book is based on the premise that ‘fundamentalism’ that gives an impression of antiquity is a modern phenomenon and ‘relatively a recent thing’ (p. 17). It explains fundamentalism as a powerful reaction against modernity that has brought unprecedented linear transformations in the economic, political, scientific and educational spheres undermining the influence of tradition and religion over the past couple of centuries. Fundamentalism is an endeavour to reverse the ‘negative side’ of modernity

• Saurabh Mishra
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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The article seeks to assess the evolution of the Tibet question against the backdrop of the problems associated with the succession of the Dalai Lama. It also discusses the implications of all this for India and provides policy recommendations the Indian authorities could use to deal with this situation.

• Adrien Frossard
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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V.Prabhakaran, the man who took up arms at the age of 17 and led one of the world's most ruthless terrorist organisations to realise the dream of the Tamil Eelam, died in the final battle with the Sri Lankan forces in May 2009, leaving behind Tamils who are a disillusioned and demoralised ‘nation’. The end of the war established the writ of the Sri Lankan state and re-established Sinhala hegemony. S. Murari, in his book The Prabhakaran Saga: The Rise and Fall of an Eelam Warrior, depicts the Prabhakaran era in the history of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict in an objective manner.

• Gulbin Sultana
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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India has a long history of left-wing extremism. The largest and most powerful left-wing extremist group today is the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist), which is active in many states across the country. Its ultimate goal is to capture power through a combination of armed insurgency and mass mobilisation. In recent times, the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has achieved notable success in counterinsurgency operations against the Maoists. This article outlines the ‘Andhra model’, which involves a mix of security, development and political approaches.

• Arijit Mazumadar
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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Saudi Arabia is a country the West loves and hates simultaneously. Often termed a ‘mysterious land’, Westerners largely view Saudi Arabia as a country ‘defined by oil, terrorism and veiled women’ (p. 1). The vast oil resources of the country unfailingly increase its strategic importance which helps to foster closer ties with the Americans and the Europeans who otherwise scorn its strict religious orientations, undemocratic and closed system of governance, and the excessive social and cultural dominance of the Wahhabi religious establishment.

• Mohammed Nuruzzaman
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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How effective are offsets as a means to boost a domestic defence industry? This article takes a novel approach to answering this question; examining global data on levels of defence sales over three decades as a measure of successful defence industrialisation (i.e., using the market as an indicator of success). The quantitative data points to a mixed picture as despite the ubiquity of defence offsets, they are no guarantees of success in defence industrialisation.

• Joanna Spear
• July 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis
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