Strategic Analysis

India amidst Increased Activity in the Security Council: A Few Observations

Article 1 of the United Nations Charter declares the maintenance of international peace and security to be the primary function of the United Nations. This makes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) the most important organ of the whole establishment. All other functions and engagements of the United Nations are in support of the primary cause.

Underdogs End Empires: A Memoir by I.P. Khosla

Ambassador I.P. Khosla, the author of the book Underdogs End Empires: A Memoir, started his career in the Indian Foreign Service in 1960 and retired in 1996. Holding important positions, he witnessed at first hand the historic events that unfolded during this period and in the book under review he narrates all these experiences. The canvas of the book is large in terms of the geography as well as the time period it covers.

Asymmetric Warfare: A View from India

Coined a few years ago, ‘asymmetric warfare’ is an umbrella term that includes insurgent and terrorist campaigns that Western militaries were forced to contend with in the course of external interventions. Asymmetric wars for Western countries are wars of choice, not wars of necessity.

To Stop Iran Getting the Bomb, Must We Learn to Live with Its Nuclear Capability?

The latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme, released on November 8, 2011, has effectively raised the global threat level. The agency faced the daunting challenge of making a judgement on how far Iran's nuclear programme has advanced and its potential for weaponisation on the basis of suggestive but dated, inconclusive and possibly fake evidence (hundreds of pages of evidence have been sourced to one laptop of unproven provenance given to the IAEA by a Western intelligence agency).

Should India ‘Be East’ or Be Eurasian?

The recent fad among Western security commentaries is to portray India as a natural member of East Asian political life.

Emergent Micro-National Communities: The Logic of Kuki-Chin Armed Struggle in Manipur

The granting of scheduled tribe status to the Kuki-Chin people eroded their allegiance to clan and linguistic/dialectal identities. While they do not have any problem with a pan-ethnic identity, their primary loyalty is to their own clans and communities. Invocation of kinship ties by different groups does not necessarily translate into a common political agenda. There are at least 15 armed groups among them that have combined into two larger groups—the United People's Front (UPF) and the Kuki National Organisation (KNO)—and signed a peace agreement with the state and central governments.

Political Integration of Northeast India: A Historical Analysis

Most nation-states in Asia and Africa that gained independence from colonial rulers during the middle of the 20th century are diverse in their ethnic composition. The national governments make efforts to politically integrate their constituent units in the face of the continuing resistance of several ethnic groups. India adopted various means to integrate the more than 600 princely states and other loosely administered areas.

Iran’s Influence: A Religious-Political State and Society in Its Region by Elaheh Rostami-Povey

Elaheh Rostami-Povey focuses on the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the speedy consolidation of the Islamic Republic. She argues that the Islamic Revolution did not dismantle history and progress within Iran. Rather, it provided an opportunity to form progressive grassroots movements to resist the highly autocratic and repressive nature of the Iranian state. Rostami-Povey tries to discover the links between Iran's internal political development and Islamist ideology and their connection with its mostly regional but also worldwide role.

Somali Piracy: A Form of Economic Terrorism

Piracy over the years has been driven by geography, political instability and the availability of safe havens. Apart from these established factors, economics too play a role. This article reviews and examines Somali piracy, which has flourished due to the international community ignoring the growing instability in Somalia, the rampant illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping. It examines the international response, the legal and economic factors and advocates that piracy be viewed as a form of economic terrorism and be combatted as such, as well as by land-based operations.

US Foreign Policy Today: American Renewal? by Steven W. Hook and James M. Scott

President Barack Obama entered office in January 2009 with a plateful of domestic and international challenges. The worst economic recession in decades, a financial system teetering on the brink of collapse, two increasingly costly and unpopular overseas wars, festering nuclear tensions with Iran and North Korea, isolation and distrust from the international community and the threat of international terrorism were some of the challenges Obama inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush. US Foreign Policy Today: American Renewal?, edited by Steven W. Hook and James M.