S. Samuel C. Rajiv

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Dr S Samuel C Rajiv is Associate Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. Prior to joining MP-IDSA in November 2006, Dr Rajiv worked at the publication India’s National Security Annual Review (from 2002-2005) and was a Visiting Scholar at the BESA Centre for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University, Israel (October 2005-September 2006). Dr Rajiv earned his PhD from the School of International Studies, JNU.

He has published on issues related to India’s foreign and security policies in Strategic Analysis, Foreign Policy, Business Standard, The Jerusalem Post, among other publications. He is the author of The India-Israel Strategic Partnership: Contours, Opportunities and Challenges (Pentagon Press, 2023) and Co-Editor of India-Israel: The Making of a Strategic Partnership (Routledge, 2020).

Dr Rajiv is a recipient of the President MPIDSA’s Award for Excellence for Young Scholars in 2013, 2014 and 2017, for the best peer-reviewed articles published in Strategic Analysis. He has been a member of the MPIDSA Website editorial team since August 2016 and Editor, MPIDSA Website, since January 2023.

His current fellowship project is on ‘India’s Defence Exports: Issues and Challenges’.

  • Research Fellow
  • Email:cherian[dot]samuel[at]gmail[dot]com/li>
  • Phone: +91 11 2671 7983

Publication

Iran’s Nuclear Imbroglio at The Crossroads: Policy Options For India

On account of pertinent international, regional and domestic dynamics, the Iranian nuclear imbroglio is at uncertain crossroads. There are however reasons for optimism. This is because of Iran’s continuing engagement with the IAEA and P5+1 and strong opposition from major powers to a military solution. In the light of the above dynamics, the Paper points out dilemmas being encountered by India and ends by exploring possible policy options in the evolving situation.

In Pursuit of a Shield: US, Missile Defence and the Iran Threat

The US pursuit of missile defence in order to counter and/or hedge against Iran's ballistic missile capabilities coupled with concerns generated by its nuclear programme has had significant strategic consequences. Iran on its part has pursued these capabilities as part of its asymmetric strategy to overcome its strategic vulnerabilities flowing from US encirclement, short-comings in force levels vis-a-vis neighbours and resource constraints in building effective conventional forces.

India and the Nuclear High Road: Nuclear Cooperation Agreements with Japan and Australia

Apart from the United States, India's nuclear cooperation agreements with Japan and Australia have been the most contentious domestically within those countries. The 'slow embrace' of India's civil nuclear credentials by Japan — given the four years for negotiations to begin (after the December 2006 Joint Statement which talked about discussions regarding such an agreement with India) in addition to the six years it took for negotiations to bear fruit — took place despite the strategic context of increasingly closer economic, political, and security ties.

The India-Israel Defence and Security Partnership At 30

Defence and security cooperation have been the mainstays of the India-Israel strategic engagement. The Monograph places in perspective these aspects of the relationship, three decades into the establishment of full diplomatic ties. The study notes that India is taking a series of measures to enhance domestic procurement and defence indigenization.

India and Israel: The Making of a Strategic Partnership

  • Publisher: Routledge
    2020
India and Israel contextualises the varied aspects of the partnership between India and Israel, with a specific focus on the dominant driver — the defence engagement between the two sides, forged in the context of mutual complementarities.

India’s broad-spectrum relationship with Israel transformed into a strategic partnership in 2017, a quarter century after the establishment of full diplomatic ties. India and Israel have successfully steered the relationship forward, despite the baggage of fraught and convulsive neighbourhoods. The contributors to this volume include policy makers and military leaders who played an important role in the growth of the relationship, as well as academics who have closely followed its growth, shedding important light on the transformation of the India-Israel bilateral relationship into a strategic partnership over the course of past tumultuous 25 years. Chapters highlight Israel’s increasing engagement with India’s diverse federal polity, the de-hyphenation of the India-Israel ties from India’s relationship with Palestine, as well as the role played by US non-state (pro-Israel US-based interest groups) and sub-state (US Congressmen) actors in shaping India-Israel ties. The concluding chapter examines Israel’s relationship with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), given that both the PRC and India established diplomatic ties with Israel almost simultaneously.

India and Israel will be of great interest to scholars of strategic studies, international relations, Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies, as well as those working in diplomacy, government and the military. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Strategic Analysis.

  • ISBN: 9780367465049,
  • Price: £96.00

  • Published: 2020

The India-Israel Strategic Partnership

  • Publisher: Pentagon Press
    2022
India and Israel marked three decades of the establishment of full diplomatic ties in January 2022. In the aftermath of the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017, India-Israel relations have acquired a new momentum and strategic depth.

Defence and security cooperation have been the mainstays of the partnership. The study notes that India is taking a series of measures to enhance domestic procurement and defence indigenization. Going forward, strategic partners like Israel will be expected to continue to work more closely with the domestic defence industry to fulfil the critical requirements of India’s armed forces.

On reginal security issues like the Iranian nuclear contentions, India has adopted positions largely in opposition to the preferred Israeli policy preferences. India has, however, consistently held that it is opposed to the possibility of a nuclear Iran, given the negative repercussions for regional security and stability, as well as due to the Iran-Pakistan proliferation linkages.

India’s Palestine policy, meanwhile, will continue to be guided by its core principles on the issue, even as the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel, looks difficult to materialize in the near to mid-terms. This is even as the schisms within the Palestinian national movement look set to expand in the post-Mahmoud Abbas era.

The book brings to attention the dynamic path India-Israel relations have traversed in the past three decades, encompassing areas of defence and security and high-technology cooperation. New vistas of engagement are being pursued by both countries, bilaterally as well as with other countries. The first I2U2 Summit meeting held between the leaders of India, Israel, the UAE and the US in July 2022 emphasized the geo-economic focus of the unique mini-lateral group. An India-Israel enhanced strategic partnership is a win-win proposition, bilaterally and across regions.

  • ISBN: 978-93-90095-70-4 ,
  • Price: ₹ 995
  • E-copy available

  • Published: 2022