The Himalayan river system, which is made up of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers, has a combined drainage area that covers the countries of China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The basin of the Indus river, which originates in the Tibetan plateau, is the lifeline of regions in China, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

• Mirza Sadaqat Huda
• May 2013
• Strategic Analysis

There is a perception in certain quarters that Nepal was not given due share in the three major water deals between Nepal and India, namely the Kosi Agreement, the Gandak Treaty and the Mahakali Treaty. However, these projects were found to be mutually advantageous to both Nepal and India. If there was any shortcoming in the Kosi Agreement or the Gandak Treaty, it was due to the lack of experience on the part of India. As and when the need was felt, India reciprocated the Nepalese sentiments by way of making revisions in the treaty/agreement.

• Hari Bansh Jha
• March 2013
• Strategic Analysis

The soil of Pakistan, because of its culture, customs, traditions, values, the temperament of the people and even state policies, provides the ideal ground for Islamic radicalism, extremism, sectarianism and terrorism.

• Mohammad Shehzad
• March 2013
• Strategic Analysis

Like any other government-owned media institution, Radio Kashmir has historically been entrusted with a mission to safeguard the territorial integrity of India and help in guarding its vital strategic interests. It acts as an agency that bridges the gap between the government and the people and creates a favourable opinion of India as a strong, modern and secular democracy in a region where fundamentalism and military ambitions have created rogue states.

• Rajesh Krishan Bhat
• March 2013
• Strategic Analysis

Mahinda Rajapaksa has emerged as perhaps the only Sri Lankan leader who has managed to secure some strategic autonomy in conducting his country's foreign policy vis-à-vis India. He engaged India effectively during the military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and simultaneously countervailed India by improving his country's relationship with India's traditional adversaries such as China and Pakistan. In the post-LTTE scenario, he has maintained a defiant posture vis-à-vis India over the latter's persuasion to evolve a political solution to the ethnic issue.

• Ashok K. Behuria , Gulbin Sultana
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

The ‘ethnic question’ in Sri Lanka, even after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), evokes a sense of suspense, uncertainty and even a possible conflict of interest in the otherwise robust and multifaceted relationship between India and Sri Lanka. The article adopts a multi-agent model derived from the positional analysis and identifies three principal agents in Indo-Sri Lanka relations—the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), the Government of India (GoI) and Tamil Nadu.

• Amali Wedagedara
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

One cannot deny the inexorable advantage that geography has given Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Being the only link between the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and Pakistan, PoK is truly the ‘umbilical cord’—a bond that is symbolical of the very deep relationship between the two countries. The PRC has at various forums asserted that it only has an economic interest in PoK and has openly denied the presence of People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel in PoK.

• Mandip Singh
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

An old African proverb—‘Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter’—comes to mind after reading Farhat Taj's combative, if also compelling, and to an extent controversial, description of what is actually happening on ground zero of the War on Terror, i.e. the Pashtun-dominated belt of the Afpak region. Often enough, the dominant narrative of any war drowns the voices of those living through and dying in the conflict. This is precisely what has happened in the Pashtun-populated areas that lie in the eye of the Islamist storm.

• Sushant Sareen
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The article argues that as India and Bhutan have moved into the second phase of power cooperation, it is important that the two countries revisit their policies and identify approaches that will be sustainable in the long term. The article emphasises that a sub-regional energy grid between Bhutan, India and Bangladesh can become an effective conduit for strengthening sub-regional diplomacy and help in addressing the latent but underlying concerns of Bhutan, which have the potential to impact India–Bhutan bilateral relations in the long term.

• Medha Bisht
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The relations between Bangladesh and India are important and have a strong historic basis. The prospects for these relations to grow in strength are indeed enormous if they are pursued for mutual benefit and with mutual respect. Our geographical proximity, cultural affinity and shared history should form the parameters of our relations.

• Begum Khaleda Zia MP
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

This article is an attempt to understand India's concerns over the Diamer Bhasha dam project within the overall ambit of India's approach towards Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It makes a holistic assessment of the feasibility of the project, the political and technical issues involved in it, the long-term strategy of Pakistan and China in the region, and the local reactions, which must inform India's future policy preferences regarding PoK. The article is divided into three parts.

• Priyanka Singh
• July 2012
• Strategic Analysis

Maritime strategy is playing an ever greater role in Indian strategic thinking. As India reaches for great power status, it is increasingly turning to the Indian Ocean to expand its strategic space. Although it currently operates in co-operation with the United States, India has long-term aspirations towards attaining naval predominance throughout much of the Indian Ocean. In conjunction with an expansion of India's naval capabilities, there has been a significant strengthening of India's maritime security relationships throughout the region.

• S. Kulshrestha
• May 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The objectives of this article are, firstly, to identify the place occupied by the Indian Ocean and South Asia in China's maritime strategy, and secondly, to identify the appropriate means of dealing with the global and regional maritime security concerns arising from China's maritime strategy as far as the Indian Ocean and South Asia are concerned.

• Sithara Fernando
• May 2012
• Strategic Analysis

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

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.

• Anand Kumar
• March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

This article will bring to light the transformation of the Pakistani state from a relatively tolerant to an unstable state dominated by militancy and violence. In the formative phase of Pakistan, the notion of religious extremism was almost non-existent as the founder of the country, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, made it clear that the new state would not be theocratic in nature.

• Moonis Ahmar
• March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The Pashtun populations of Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been a source of bilateral contention, with each government inciting Pashtun tribals against the other. Now that the majority of Pashtuns live in Pakistan, Islamabad is using its Pashtun connections to project influence into Afghanistan. As a result, both Afghanistan and Pakistan are threatened by runaway Pashtun militancy. Peace and stability in both countries will be impossible until political reforms have been implemented in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.

• Robert Boggs
• March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

This article assesses the shifting preferences of Bhutan towards the foreign policy determinants. Three determinants (national security, political culture and economic engagement) have been studied as they play a significant role in shaping Bhutan's policy behaviour. These determinants have been analysed with respect to India, Nepal and China, three countries that have been of critical interest to Bhutan's foreign policy.

• Medha Bisht
• January 2012
• Strategic Analysis

It is now commonly accepted that small island countries are facing an existential threat because of global warming and the consequent rise in the level of the oceans.

• P. K. Gautam
• January 2012
• Strategic Analysis

For a long time, it was common practice to term the rate of economic growth in India the ‘Hindu rate of growth’—a derogatory term for the low growth rate of the economy.

• Hari Bansh Jha
• January 2012
• Strategic Analysis

With the Bangladesh general elections not far away in 2018, and the unlikely scenario of the Rohingya problem being fully resolved in the next few months, the issue is likely to deeply influence the posture of the various political parties.

• Gautam Sen
• October 03, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Pakistan’s responses with reference to the US encouraging India to play a greater role in Afghanistan raise an intriguing question: were Trump’s statements on India part of a gambit to extract cooperation from Pakistan?

• Priyanka Singh
• September 11, 2017
• IDSA Comments

While the agreement remains controversial, China is likely to consolidate its presence and Sri Lanka likely to get deeper into the Chinese debt trap even though it has gained temporary relief through the equity for debt swap.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• August 14, 2017
• IDSA Comments

To effectively cope with the PRC’s hostile attitude, India needs to reduce the power asymmetry, articulate a clear security policy based on a realistic threat assessment, reorganise the military, and revamp the border management mechanism.

• G.G. Dwivedi
• August 11, 2017
• IDSA Comments

The Doklam standoff has emerged as a litmus test for India in terms of how resolutely it can stand up against an increasingly hegemonic China to protect the interests of Bhutan as well as its own interests.

• Ashok Sajjanhar
• August 11, 2017
• IDSA Comments

While decades of counterinsurgency operations and peace processes have taken the sting out of the region’s major insurgencies, collaboration between groups continues to pose security challenges, particularly in the exploitable border areas adjacent to the upper Sagaing Region of Northwest Myanmar.

• Alex Waterman
• August 10, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Consisting of five major hydropower projects including the Diamer Bhasha Dam, the North Indus Cascade will cut across Gilgit Baltistan as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• Priyanka Singh
• July 19, 2017
• Issue Brief

In December 2015, the Russian Foreign Ministry revealed that Russia was engaging in intelligence sharing with the Taliban to counter the growing presence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

• Parth Sarthi Suhag
• June 21, 2017
• IDSA Comments

The growing vilification of the Kashmiri movement by Salafi-Jihadi terror groups is a part of their overt radicalization attempts aimed at hijacking the sub-nationalist insurgency.

• Adil Rasheed
• May 15, 2017
• IDSA Comments

The revival of Jaish indicates that Pakistan will continue to utilise terrorism as an instrument to advance its geo-strategic agenda in South Asia.

• Raj Verma
• May 15, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Subsuming Gilgit Baltistan as a province may propel a paradigmatic shift and redrawing of Kashmir strategy across both sides of the Line of Control.

• Priyanka Singh
• April 19, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Mufti Hanna’s hanging may not mean the end of the terror outfit and definitely not the end of radical ideology in Bangladesh.

• Anand Kumar
• April 19, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Unless an integrated view of Teesta basin management is adopted, the water and power needs of Sikkim and Bengal cannot be attended to in juxtaposition to the needs of Bangladesh.

• Gautam Sen
• April 18, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Given an already upset population and the presence of anti-establishment factions, the unequal distribution of the benefits of CPEC is likely to ignite protests and cause a setback to the initiative as well to the Pakistan establishment.

• Zainab Akhter
• April 13, 2017
• IDSA Comments

It has become usual pattern for any political interaction between Bangladesh and India at the highest political level to be preceded, and followed, by an endless stream of analysis and curiosity on both sides of the border, but more so in Bangladesh. The just concluded official visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India from 7 to 10 April has been no exception, nor was it expected to be.

• Shamsher M. Chowdhury , BB
• April 12, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Sheikh Hasina’s visit should not be seen through the narrow prism of an agreement on defence cooperation or Teesta but through the broader perspective of the unexplored potential in India-Bangladesh relations.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• April 07, 2017
• IDSA Comments

China has created a constituency within the Nepal Army during the last few years. Some senior officers of the NA favour deeper military cooperation with China to reap more benefits.

• Nihar R. Nayak
• March 31, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Will the Pakistani civilian leadership cease to placate the Islamist forces for their own electoral gain? Will the Army rein in the jihadis it has been using to retain “strategic depth” in Afghanistan?

• Nazir Ahmad Mir
• March 17, 2017
• IDSA Comments

From all angles – political, economic, diplomatic and military – India is in a position to meet the SLAF’s potential combat aircraft requirements.

• Sanjay Badri-Maharaj
• March 10, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Bangladesh may be able to manage the Rohingya refugee problem only as a short-term expedient, albeit with considerable economic implications.

• Gautam Sen
• February 28, 2017
• IDSA Comments