• Pushpita Das
• 2021
• Book

• Shruti Pandalai
• 2019
• Book

The only way forward for India, therefore, is to decouple the Kashmir issue from that of Pakistan, and address the internal aspects: Kashmir's development, unsettled political issues, healing the wounds and alienation of the youth, promptly.

• Abdul Hameed Khan
• 2017
• Monograph

• Vivek Chadha
• 2016
• Book

• S. D. Muni , Vivek Chadha
• 2016
• Book

This monograph is an attempt to examine American and Indian counterinsurgency experiences through the lens of historical context, organizational culture, and military capability.

• Ayesha Ray
• 2016
• Monograph

This monograph examines the Indian government’s perspective on the issue of infiltration/illegal from Bangladesh. It analyses the socio-economic and political impact of the presence of a large number of illegal Bangladeshi migrants on the receiving societies within India.

• Pushpita Das
• 2016
• Monograph

• Vivek Chadha
• 2015
• Book

• K. Warikoo
• 2014
• Book

• Surinder Kumar Sharma , Anshuman Behera
• 2014
• Book

• P. V. Ramana
• 2014
• Book

This monograph aims at understanding India's approach towards coastal security as it has evolved since Independence. It describes the kinds of threats and challenges that India's coasts have been facing, or are likely to face in future. It critically analyses the various strategies and polices that the Indian government has devised over the years as a response to these threats and challenges.

• Pushpita Das
• 2013
• Monograph

The Monograph deals with the internal security situation in India. It focuses on the Naxal conflict, the Northeastern ethnic armed insurgencies, and terrorism for a detailed study.

• Namrata Goswami
• 2013
• Monograph

This study aims to highlight the contours of transition in Jammu and Kashmir. The study assays the issues and challenges that were highlighted during the three crises in the State since 2008. It analyses the immediate as well as long-term response of the government to these challenges.

• Arpita Anant
• 2013
• Monograph

At a time when the country is seeing crises - political, social and moral, the role of the media is rising in perception as never before. But how much does 'prime time' in the era of 24 hour news coverage actually impact policy? This monograph unpacks the perceived influence of the media in specific foreign policy episodes and argues that while it has introduced accountability and real-time responses to issues, it still has not been able to establish long term policy impact.

• Shruti Pandalai
• 2013
• Monograph

• V. Krishnappa , Princy Marin George
• 2012
• Book

• IDSA Task Force
• 2012
• Book

• IDSA Task Force
• 2012
• Book

• Arpita Anant
• 2011
• Book

• Pushpita Das
• 2010
• Book

• Natallia Khaniejo
• July-December 2016
• CBW Magazine

In the larger national strategic discourse, identifying and prioritising the internal security issues and challenges is very crucial. India has been grappling with multiple ‘identity-centric’ and ‘grievance-driven’ challenges that have impacted its security and national fabric for more than seven decades now. While there is no gainsaying that the country has been largely successful in managing these conflicts well below the threshold levels, a durable peace—a prerequisite for national security and development—is as elusive as ever in most of these conflicts.

• Rajbala Rana
• April-June 2021
• Journal of Defence Studies

The political dispute over the territory of Kashmir is an intricate problem confronting the modern South Asian leadership. The intricacies of the conflict have led to voluminous writings on the region and evident from them is a greater focus on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as compared to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The ‘escape’ of Pakistan–occupied Kashmir from the scholarly radar has begun to change only recently.

• Muneeb Yousuf
• March 2022
• Strategic Analysis

Northeast India continues to be an industrially underdeveloped and infrastructurally deficient region. The poor condition of infrastructure in the region demands serious attention. Studies in the region reveal that a people’s perspective of development, i.e., roads, electricity, telecommunications and water, falls rightly within the ambit of critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure is directly linked to economic development, national security, access and availability of educational and health infrastructure.

• Raile Rocky Ziipao
• May 2020
• Strategic Analysis

Ladakh is one of the largest administrative units in India, in terms of its territory. Due to its contiguity with Xinjiang and Tibet and its close proximity to Central Asia, and enjoying a central position in the network of overland caravan routes that were linked to the Silk Route, Ladakh acted as an important gateway in the Indo-Central Asian exchange of men, materials and ideas through the ages.

• K. Warikoo
• May 2020
• Strategic Analysis

The Border Area Development Programme was initiated in the year 1986–87, to strengthen India’s security by ensuring developed and secure borders. Initially, the programme was implemented in the western border states to facilitate deployment of the Border Security Force. Later, the geographical and functional scope of the programme was widened to include eastern and northern sectors of India’s borders and as well as socio-economic aspects such as education, health, agriculture and other allied sectors. But, it is difficult to say that the implementation has been uniform in all the sectors.

• N. Manoharan , Depak Saravanan , Vasvi Saini
• January 2020
• Strategic Analysis

The debate over what constitutes terrorism spans a wide, diverse and largely a competing body of intellectual strands. In particular, the lack of consensus on the need (or otherwise) for a universally acceptable definition or no definition at all characterizes the discursive dynamics of the definitional subfield. Conversely, there is a persistent tendency of circumspection to embrace methodologies, e.g. case study frameworks, that can prove to be more helpful in conceptualizing terrorism.

• Muhammad Feyyaz
• July 2019
• Strategic Analysis

This article is a moderate attempt to understand the various ideas associated with ethnicity and ethnic conflicts, and to study the nature, trends and typology of ethnic and insurgent conflicts in the North East Indian states (viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura) from 1990 to 2016, using the UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset.

• Deborshi Brahmachari
• July 2019
• Strategic Analysis

Power trading across borders is not a new concept, even in the subcontinent. However, it has been sporadic and unstructured and often not in strict consonance with the requirements of national security. This article seeks to make out a case for using energy security and cross border power trade, as one of the ‘soft power’ tools to further our national security.

• Sanjay Mitra , Richa Misra
• September 2018
• Strategic Analysis

Human security as a concept contends that the appropriate referent for peace and security should be the individual instead of the state. This Essay explores whether a human security-centred approach, i.e., a focus on the individual citizen’s concerns and security complements rather than contradicts state and national security.

• D. Padma Kumar Pillay
• July 2018
• Strategic Analysis

In recent years, especially after the 9/11 attacks on America, Western academics and policy-makers have increasingly viewed Islam as an inherently violent religion and Muslims as terrorists.

• Mohammed Nuruzzaman
• November 2017
• Strategic Analysis

Contemporary scholarship working on Indo-Pak issues has tended to view Siachen as a bilateral issue, and therefore, not much literature has been generated analysing the conflict beyond this spatio-temporal realm. Stephen Cohen terms the battle over Siachen as a ‘struggle of two bald men over a comb’ and dismisses the conflict as militarily unimportant. Veteran journalist Myra Macdonald’s book Heights of Madness gives an excellent account of the Siachen saga from both Indian and Pakistani sides but does not provide any strategic evaluation of the conflict. Lt Gen.

• Prateek Joshi
• September 2017
• Strategic Analysis

Counterinsurgency (COIN) has long been recognised as a political phenomenon, but current theoretical understandings of politics in COIN reflect ideal types, overlooking the depth and complexity of the politics of insurgency and COIN. Drawing from India’s experience in its northeastern region, this article argues that COIN theory overlooks the political agency and multiplicity of actors, as well as overlooking the fundamentally political scope of interactions that take place between them.

• Alex Waterman
• September 2017
• Strategic Analysis

Partly the result of a political and physical isolation compounded by decades of conflict in the region, Northeast India is often viewed through the prism of security studies, institutional performance or developmental governance. While important contributions in themselves, a state-centric focus often overlooks the complexity of the causes and dynamics. It ignores the consequences of regional societal forces’ articulation of identity, nationalism, separatism and sovereignty that can shape political boundaries in the region, thus overlooking the salience of subaltern narratives.

• Alex Waterman
• January 2017
• Strategic Analysis

Inhabited by numerous tribes and sub-tribes with fierce clan loyalties, the north-east of India has been plagued by identity-inspired insurgencies since independence. The first of these insurgencies was that of the Naga National Council (NNC) in the mid-1950s. Subsequent decades saw the outbreak of other, similar, insurgencies among the Meiteis, Mizos, Assamese and Boroks.

• Pushpita Das
• September 2016
• Strategic Analysis

Over the last few years, it has been a roller coaster ride for the oil markets. From $110 a barrel in 2010, prices began dropping from June 2014 and finally dropped to below $30 a barrel in January 2016. Then from the end of the first quarter of 2016, prices started recovering and have been hovering around $50 a barrel since May

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal
• September 2016
• Strategic Analysis

This article seeks to make a preliminary assessment of the surrender and rehabilitation policy being adopted towards Naxalites. The examples/experiences cited in this paper refer largely to cadres and leaders of Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI (Maoist). It is part of a multi-pronged conflict management and resolution strategy and is required to be implemented along with firm action by police against those who follow the path of violence.

• P. V. Ramana
• November 2013
• Strategic Analysis

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

The Kuki–Naga conflict, which was mainly fought on land and identity issues, resulted in the uprooting of hundreds of villages, with the loss of more than 1,000 lives and enormous internal displacement. The British colonial policy of governance in the north-east frontier of India and the rise of ethnic nationalism among both the Kukis and Nagas in the post-independence period were the roots of the conflict.

• Thongkholal Haokip
• March 2013
• Strategic Analysis

The late Sri Brijesh Mishra's perceptive mind and pragmatism in the formulation of foreign and security policies earned him the title of ‘Chanakya of the modern period’. During his long career as a diplomat, he held many important positions and retired from the Indian Foreign Services (IFS) as India's permanent representative in the United Nations (UN).

• S.D. Pradhan
• March 2013
• Strategic Analysis

Trafficking of drugs takes place overwhelmingly through land borders followed by sea and air routes. Given the vulnerability of the borders to drug trafficking, India has tried to tackle the problem through the strategy of drug supply and demand reduction, which involves enacting laws, co-operating with voluntary organisations, securing its borders and coasts by increasing surveillance, as well as seeking the active cooperation of its neighbours and the international community.

• Pushpita Das
• IDSA Occasional Papers

Border trade is trade in local products of limited value by the people residing within a few kilometres on either side of the international border. Although the contribution of border trade in India's economy is negligible, it has substantial impact on its relations with its neighbours as well as on the people living on the border.

• Pushpita Das
• IDSA Occasional Papers

This Occasional Paper analyzes the Chinese territorial claim from futuristic perspective by identifying three drivers of uncertainty that has bearing on future Chinese behaviour, namely, Chinese regime stability and nationalism; the Tibet factor and internal developments in Arunachal Pradesh. Based on the interactive interplay between the three drivers, the author offers four alternative scenarios with regard to China's territorial claim in 2032.

• Namrata Goswami
• IDSA Occasional Papers

This Occasional Paper focuses on the insurgency problem in the Northeast and give policy recommendations to bring about peace and development in the region.

• Namrata Goswami
• IDSA Occasional Papers

This paper throws light on challenges like lack of infrastructure, crisis of insurgency, the disjuncture between the elites and the social base in the North East regarding the “Look East” policy, and the states' incapacities during the implementation process of this policy.

• Namrata Goswami
• IDSA Occasional Papers

The menace of Left Wing Extremism (LWE), commonly termed as Naxalism and Maoist insurgency, has been categorised as the single biggest challenge to India’s internal security by the Prime Minister. He urged the Centre as well as States, to urgently employ all available resources to cripple the virus of Naxalism.

• Om Shankar Jha
• IDSA Occasional Papers

Lack of manpower, training, infrastructure and coordination coupled with other systemic flaws and state government’s indifference to coastal security have severely undermined the efficacy of the coastal security apparatus.

• Pushpita Das
• IDSA Occasional Papers

The language issue has the potential to explode into ethnic conflicts and as a result it requires critical analysis and farsighted action from the government and the linguistic groups in question.

• T.T. Haokip
• IDSA Occasional Papers

This occasional paper attempts to assess and analyse the impact of the MPF scheme on building police combat capability in affected States.

• Om Shankar Jha
• IDSA Occasional Papers

Efforts to control and prevent illegal immigration remain highly inadequate in India; and likely to remain so in the coming years. But, the reality is that unabated illegal immigration has enormous demographic and social implications, capable of creating tensions and conflict between the immigrants and the natives; and more so among the natives.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• IDSA Occasional Papers

This paper argues that internal security reforms are crucial not only for India's own security and that of its immediate neighbourhood, but also for its rise as an Asian and world power.

• Sandy Gordon
• IDSA Occasional Papers

Critiques of the Indian Army's counterinsurgency practice have overlooked a critical aspect of “organisational innovation and operational learning” formalised as Op Sadhbhavana. These initiatives have had a limited but salutary impact in transforming the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.

• Arpita Anant
• IDSA Occasional Papers

The assertions by the Ministry of Home Affairs that the Maoist challenge could be dealt with in three years seems to be ambitious, given present-day the ground realities. If coordinated action is taken, perhaps, their challenge could be defeated in approximately seven to 10 years. A welcome development is that the various state governments and the Union Government have begun to evince willingness to deal with the issue. Doubtless, the Maoist challenge can certainly be defeated.

• P. V. Ramana
• IDSA Occasional Papers

Increased collaboration among countries of the Indian Ocean Region on atmospheric and ocean studies is essential to tackle the challenge of climate change-induced vulnerabilities.

• Manoranjan Srivastava
• November 01, 2023
• Issue Brief

India is developing reliable deep-sea mining technologies and platforms to tap ocean resources to address its need for rare earth minerals that increasingly power renewable energy sources.

• Manoranjan Srivastava
• September 27, 2023
• Issue Brief

With increasing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and Chinese nuclear force modernisation, the prospects of indigenous nuclear weapons acquisition by Japan and South Korea cannot be ruled out.

• Abhishek Verma , Arnab Dasgupta
• August 03, 2023
• Issue Brief

The inaction of countries like Canada to rein in the Khalistani separatists have been straining their relations with India.

• Abhishek Verma
• July 26, 2023
• Issue Brief

Effective, inclusive and transparent governance is the need of the hour in violence-hit Manipur.

• Pushpita Das
• May 26, 2023
• Issue Brief

India and Japan as Chairs of the G20 and G7 respectively can play a key role in ensuring that global nuclear instability is effectively managed.

• Arnab Dasgupta , Abhishek Verma
• May 19, 2023
• Issue Brief

The proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 will allow for speedy completion of infrastructure projects in the border areas.

• Pushpita Das
• April 06, 2023
• IDSA Comments