Strategic Analysis

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.

Chinese Engagement with the Maldives: Impact on Security Environment in the Indian Ocean Region

This article explores the objectives of China's engagement in the Maldives and how the current administration of the country is responding to it. The article also looks at how the Maldives has been used by major powers in the past. On the basis of these analyses, it envisages the path that Maldivian foreign policy is likely to follow in the future and its likely impact on the security environment in the Indian Ocean region.

The US–India Nuclear Pact: Policy, Process and Great Power Politics by Harsh V. Pant

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.

The Role of the National Solar Mission in Climate Change Mitigation and the Twin Objective of Energy Security

This article outlines the National Solar Mission's role as India's major climate change mitigation policy, arguing that India's National Solar Mission (NSM) was initially conceived to bolster India's position against legally binding commitments on carbon emissions. However, the NSM also has twin objectives in energy security. Progress in the NSM is outlined before its problems are examined in order to clarify how the Indian government may direct its development to fulfil energy security and energy access goals.

Nuclear Weapons and Conflict Transformation: The Case of India–Pakistan by Saira Khan

There are many volumes on conflict resolution and nuclear proliferation. While the conflict scholarship focuses on management, resolution and transformation of conflicts, the proliferation scholarship examines why states acquire nuclear weapons in the first place and whether or not these have any deterrent value. The book under review goes beyond these two prospects by questioning what happens when a state, in protracted conflicts, acquires nuclear weapons.

Zafar Khan
March 2012 |
Strategic Analysis

Nucleus and Nation: Scientists, International Networks and Power in India by Robert S. Anderson

Science and the Baconian spirit of scientific rationality have long inspired Indians, many of whom, including the country's first prime minister, regarded the superiority of Western science as the root cause of the subcontinent's subjection to foreign rule.

Jayita Sarkar
January 2012 |
Strategic Analysis

‘Social Capital’ and its Significance in Reimagining Chindia

Writings on India–China relations in recent years are increasingly seen to be imputing Machiavellian realism to the political and, increasingly, economic sphere of interaction.

A Time Series Forecast of Geopolitical Market Concentration (GMC) Risk: An Analysis of the Crude Oil Diversification Portfolio of India

The oil-rich Middle East region is always seen as a politically volatile region, but it has been the source of crude oil supply to all major consumers worldwide for decades. The article makes an empirical analysis of the geopolitical risk of India's diversification portfolio, which is skewed towards the Middle East.

China’s Growing Economic Presence in Ukraine and Belarus

China is gradually increasing its economic and commercial presence in Eastern Europe by signing bilateral agreements with countries that are still in transition, some of which are members of the European Union (EU).

The Delicate Balance: Israel and India’s Foreign Policy Practice

India's foreign policy interactions with Israel are marked by a political discreetness which is in contrast to its prominent political engagement with the Palestinians and countries of the Arab world. India plays down its robust defence engagement with Israel, censures Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians, supports Palestinian-related resolutions at multi-lateral forums like the UN, differs strongly from Israeli policy on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme while being opposed to the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability.