The post-Cold War period saw North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) being expanded not once but twice. In foreseeing the security threats of the 21st century, NATO is seeking to recast its strategic response. The EU and the US are united in their opinion about the need for a stronger and cohesive NATO, and a wider out-of-area role for the alliance. If both the sides start working together and address future challenges, it may bring about a ‘symbiosis’ in the Atlantic Relationship.

• Prasad P. Rane
• July 2005
• Strategic Analysis

In a significant turn of events, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on September 24, 2005, adopted a resolution (22-1 with 12 countries abstaining) calling upon Iran to accelerate its cooperation with the Agency in terms of revealing its ‘secret’ nuclear programme failing which the issue will be referred to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).1 Althoug

• Manish
• July 2005
• Strategic Analysis

This paper attempts to provide an overview of significant recent developments in US policy towards South Asia and their implications for India. It examines the proposed cooperation between India and the US, focusing on advanced technology issues. It also places this issue in the context of US-Pakistan ties, as this provides a relevant referent for comparison. This paper concludes that while the US and India are formally expanding their strategic cooperation, the results on the ground are still not in step with the rhetoric.

• G. Balachandran
• April 2005
• Strategic Analysis

On May 17, 2005, the Federal Interior Ministry of Germany published its annual report on the Protection of Constitution for 2004. For the last few years, the country’s domestic intelligence agency – Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) – under the Federal Interior Ministry, has been publishing such reports on its website.

• Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay
• April 2005
• Strategic Analysis

September 11, according to the Commission that investigated that catastrophic event, was a result of a failure of imagination. Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, on the other hand, could be characterised as a case of fertile imagination exhibited by US intelligence and the George W. Bush Administration. Intelligence failure is the facile answer given to describe what went wrong in both cases. This article offers a more nuanced answer that takes into account the political context in which the threat posed by Osama bin Laden was analysed and acted upon.

• S. Kalyanaraman
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

An attempt has been made in this article to assess the arguments in favour of a fundamental shift in Indo-US relations by revisiting the history of their bilateral relations since its formative period and comparing it with the present period. The paper strongly argues that the Indian decision to go nuclear in May 1998 played a catalytic role in bringing the two democracies together. It was Shakti 1998, which changed the entire scenario and augmented for a changed US policy towards South Asia, especially towards India.

• Bhabani Mishra
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

The conceptual discourse, contributed to in the main by Western scholars, on the security and strategic stability of new nuclear weapon states like India and Pakistan seems alarmist. In reality, however, India and Pakistan have been mutually deliberating on various aspects of nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs). This article is an effort to identify the issues of nuclear security concerns in two spheres – academic and policy formulations. The emphasis is more on the nuclear thinking of the two countries and the diplomatic challenges ahead particularly on the nuclear CBMs.

• Rajesh Kumar Mishra
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

The paper examines the salient features of the principal statutory authority, the Export Administration Act (EAA), that is, at present, governing dual-use technology control in the US, and the frontiers of dual-use export control after the enactment of the new Act. An analysis of different provisions of the bills for the new Act indicates mixed features. It does not completely liberalise the control of dual-use technology, and continues to have in place a number of curbs.

• Rajiv Nayan
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

US President George W Bush’s whirlwind tour of Europe – Belgium, Germany and Slovakia – between February 21 and 24, can be seen as an attempt to bridge the transatlantic divide and iron out differences, so as to make a fresh start to working with the European allies rather than against them. The transatlantic rift had surfaced in 2003 when the Europeans disagreed with America’s unilateralist approach in Iraq.

• Prasad P. Rane
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

The new US Secretary of State, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, made her first halt in New Delhi on March 16, 2005 during her whistle-stop tour of Asia that took her across the continent to Japan and China, among other countries. The symbolism of identifying Delhi as her first destination reiterates the determination of the Bush team to consolidate the relationship with India and realise the potential hinted at during the first term, and this was emphasised by Rice during her visit.

• C Uday Bhaskar
• January 2005
• Strategic Analysis

In the background of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s obituary tribute to P.V. Narasimha Rao acknowledging the latter as the true father of Shakti nuclear test of May 11, 1998, let me recall Rao’s role in the development of the Indian nuclear deterrent as narrated by him. This is important in order to understand the correct historical perspective about very important decisions of the past; in this case, Rao’s account of the evolution of the nuclear policy during his term of office.

• K. Subrahmanyam
• October 2004
• Strategic Analysis

President Bush has announced Condoleezza Rice as the new Secretary of State in his second term. Her deputy at the National Security Council, Stephen Hadley, has been named as the new National Security Advisor. These two along with John R. Bolton, the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs who serves as Senior Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament, represent the right wing of the foreign policy establishment.

• Parama Sinha Palit
• October 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Against all odds, Iran is pressing hard to prove its nuclear innocence and keeping its promises under the provisions of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The US is refusing to go along with Iran’s denials on violation of the NPT commitments. At the same time, the Bush Administration seems determined to stop the spread of nuclear weapons beyond Pakistan to other Muslim states. However, the facts emerging out of the probe into the A.Q. Khan episode and the international grey nuclear market indicate significant patterns of concealment and duplicity even by the NPT signatory states.

• Rajesh Kumar Mishra
• July 2004
• Strategic Analysis

The 585-page National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Report that investigated the plot, design and circumstances leading to the 9/11 attacks on the US has highlighted the dangers of organised terrorism in threatening global peace and security. The same threat has been reiterated in the recent Beslan tragedy in Russia. It is clear that terrorism has acquired global dimensions and has emerged as a fundamental concern for the international community.

• Parama Sinha Palit
• July 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Proliferation of WMDs is a grave threat to mankind, be it their flow to ‘irresponsible states’ or to terrorists. Charged by its perception of vulnerability, the US has initiated the Proliferation Security Initiative; seeking involvement of ‘key’ states for interdiction of ‘suspect ships’ at sea. In its present form, PSI is contrary to the principle of ‘Freedom of the Seas’. Further, its operational efficacy is doubtful and it has an escalatory potential. However, bilateral arrangements as an extension of PSI may lawfully supplement global non-proliferation efforts.

• Gurpreet S Khurana
• April 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Suicide bombings in Jammu and Kashmir are patterned on Palestinian methods established that those actually originated in Europe and thus added an intriguing component to the Indian terror scenario. Mainly, the European intelligence agencies have closely observed the terror scenario in Europe as an international phenomenon, its causes, ramifications as well as the recruitment procedure.

• Alok Rashmi Mukhopadhyay
• April 2004
• Strategic Analysis

Washington-Tehran relations have come to occupy centrestage in the recent months given the United States’ current preoccupation with the Middle East. The US-Iran association can be traced back to 1953, when the CIA organised a coup to oust the elected government of Mohammed Mossadeq. Since then, the US has never really disengaged itself from the one of the most strategically important Middle East nations. This paper attempts to identify current US concerns regarding Iran and explores the possibility of a US offensive against Iran similar to that in Iraq.

• Parama Sinha Palit
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

The essay defines Pakistan’s brazen retailing of sensitive nuclear technologies as Bomb Process Outsourcing (BPO) and places it in a larger perspective. It offers a short retrospective of the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons by the P-5 in which significant manpower and materials were ‘foreign’. This is true of the programmes of Israel, Iraq, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil as well. Pakistan, has now, contributed to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

• K. Santhanam
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

During the latest war in Iraq, which has now come to an end, there has been a persistent debate on why Europe and the US are not seeing eye-to-eye on the question of war and a host of issues pertaining to it. The discourse so far has speculatively tried to probe whether the whole mismatch is about culture, history or about the power game in the post-Cold War world.

• Ajai K. Rai
• April 2003
• Strategic Analysis

The paper discusses Track II Diplomacy between India and the United States with a special focus on the post-1998 period. Its scope is limited to Track II deliberations that have relevance to foreign policy issues. An effort has been made to assess the efficacy of Track II exercises on the basis of certain parameters developed for this study.

The findings of the study are based on the responses received from some experts in this field in India during direct interviews with them. Thus, the paper provides an Indian perspective.

• Bhabani Mishra
• January 2004
• Strategic Analysis

The Right of Recourse embedded in the Indian nuclear liability law has ensured that more than four years after the NSG granted exemption to enable nuclear commerce with India, India has not been able to finalise a single contract with any of the countries with which it has signed nuclear cooperation agreements for any nuclear facility.

• G. Balachandran , Kapil Patil
• November 09, 2012
• Issue Brief

Normative credibility bestows on the Indian and French quest for foreign policy independence the uniqueness not granted to any other bilateral nuclear relationship operating in opposition to the non-proliferation regime.

• Jayita Sarkar
• October 10, 2012
• IDSA Comments

There is a need to debate both the necessity and desirability of nuclear disarmament without being burdened by India’s idealistic aspirations and unfounded assumptions about the heft that this premature superpower carries in international politics.

• Yogesh Joshi
• October 10, 2012
• Issue Brief

Given the fact that there is a lot of noise being made to prod India into doing more on nuclear disarmament counter-intuitively suggests that India is actually doing very less on the issue. What explains India's reluctance?

• Yogesh Joshi
• September 05, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The proliferation of small arms and ammunition is a major issue that threatens the security of India. Aspects related to illicit manufacture of local country made guns, smuggling, pilferage from government stocks and a weak monitoring or surveillance mechanisms further complicate the issue.

• Ravinder Pal Singh
• July 27, 2012
• Policy Brief

The treaty needs to be capable of addressing existing and perceived threat of the world; at the same time, it should be flexible enough to meet emerging security challenges.

• Rajiv Nayan
• July 27, 2012
• Policy Brief

Japan’s amendment of its atomic energy law with the inclusion of a “national security” clause is being viewed within the country as a ploy to pave the way for the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

• Shamshad A. Khan
• July 11, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Since the idea of export controls may be new for a large number of countries, and most of the proposed provisions are borrowed from existing systems in developed countries, the treaty should be flexible enough to remove redundant provisions and adopt new provisions suitable for changed circumstances.

• Rajiv Nayan
• July 02, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The primary role of Israel’s current fleet of ‘Dolphins’ is likely to be limited to serve as instruments of ‘signalling’ strategic intent to potential enemies rather than as effective pre-emptive strike or competent second-strike platforms.

• S. Samuel C. Rajiv
• June 15, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Attempts by India and the US to square the circle on the nature of India’s energy cooperation with Iran have hit high gear in the aftermath of Clinton’s visit.

• S. Samuel C. Rajiv
• May 10, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Indexing will provide a further opportunity for countries to make allegations that the NGOs working on nuclear security are basically pushing the agenda of the US non-proliferation community as well as of the US government.

• Rajiv Nayan , Ch. Viyyanna Sastry
• April 09, 2012
• Issue Brief

Despite not taking a stand on nuclear security or nuclear terrorism, the NAM appears determined to adopt key elements of nuclear security.

• Rajiv Nayan
• March 16, 2012
• Issue Brief

The real test of the latest deal will be when the IAEA inspectors visit North Korea’s nuclear facility and file their report on the moratorium.

• Preeti Nalwa
• March 14, 2012
• IDSA Comments

While the project that produced the Report engaged some credible scholars from western universities and elsewhere, but the control and leadership exercised on the project by known non-proliferation activists may have sent a wrong signal to the non-western world.

• Rajiv Nayan , Ch. Viyyanna Sastry
• January 24, 2012
• IDSA Comments

While we in India should welcome a change in the strategic profile of the US, we should at the same time examine the matter closely, lest we unnecessarily get embroiled yet again with the Chinese.

• R. S. Kalha
• January 16, 2012
• IDSA Comments

While Indonesia’s ratification has given a boost to the CTBT, the positions of the other hold-out countries do not show any promise of forward movement.

• Ch. Viyyanna Sastry
• January 09, 2012
• IDSA Comments

Though India has supported and adopted the international legal framework for nuclear security, it has adopted a somewhat unique approach reflecting its policy of cautious activism.

• Rajiv Nayan
• January 05, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The year 2011 will stand out in history as the year of the Arab Spring, when people in Northern Africa and West Asia rose up against tyranny and revolted for political emancipation.

• A. Vinod Kumar
• January 04, 2012
• Issue Brief

Where the next headline grabbing cyber event would take place or in what form is difficult to predict, though it could well be perpetrated by a class that is yet to open its account, the cyber terrorist.

• Cherian Samuel
• December 29, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes, Australia has blocked the shipment of dual-use equipment to Pakistan on at least three occasions during the past two years.

• Ch. Viyyanna Sastry
• December 14, 2011
• IDSA Comments