Chairperson: Shri Gautam H BambewalaDiscussants: Professor Sreeram Sunder Chaulia and Professor Alka Acharya The fellow paper of Dr. R. N. Das focussed on how the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) play a critical role in India-China relations. According to him their importance is due to the persistence of ‘security dilemma’ in the India- China context. Factors… Continue reading The CBMs in Sino-Indian Relations: Need for Revamping and Enlarging the Structural and Institutional Mechanisms

Chairperson: Shri G K PillaiDiscussants: Maj Gen Dhruv Katoch and Shri Sanjoy Hazarika Dr. Namrata Goswami’s paper defines insurgencies as irregular warfare which engages in non-frontal attacks against the adversary with small groups of fighters and which is marked by the absence of fixed battlefields. Insurgencies, therefore, involve a complex mix of political legitimisation, support… Continue reading Escalation and De-escalation of Violence in Insurgencies: Insights from Northeast India

Chair: Ambassador (Retd) Ishrat AzizExternal Discussants: Professor Gulshan Dietl, Professor Qamar AghaInternal Discussants: Dr Shebonti Ray Dadwal, Dr Meena Singh Roy Dr Pradhan’s paper addresses India’s relations with Saudi Arabia, arguing that India must look beyond oil and trade in order to engage Saudi Arabia in a strategic partnership. This study also explores Indian interests… Continue reading India-Saudi Arabia Relations

Chairperson: Shri V K MisraDiscussants: Commodore (Dr) R K Rana and Commodore (Retd) Sujeet Samaddar Deliberations on Mr. Laxman Behera’s paper commenced with Chairperson V K Mishra’s opening remarks. Highlighting the performance of Indian naval shipbuilding industry in the past several years, he argued that shipbuilding industry has to acquire more strength. This is important… Continue reading India’s Naval Shipbuilding Industry: Key Gaps and Policy Options

Chairperson: Bharat WariavwallaDiscussants: Philippe Laurent, Nicolas Blarel, Krishnappa Venkatshamy and Lion Koenig This paper focuses on the concept of strategic autonomy as a defining element of the French strategic culture while demonstrating how throughout history France has shaped a bi-dimensional concept of autonomy. It emphasizes that the concept of strategic autonomy is key to gaining… Continue reading The Concept of Autonomy in French Strategic Thought

Chairperson: Shri Sheo Nandan PandeyDiscussants: Shri Anil Kumar Gautam and Cdr Kamlesh Agnihotri 1996 was a watershed year when agreements specifying the military CBMs were signed between India and China. The author argues that despite 14 rounds of talks held since then, India and China have achieved little in terms of common understanding on border… Continue reading China’s Planning on Border Infrastructure: Post 1996 CBM Period

Commander SS Parmar started his presentation by delineating the scope of the study, which was to study the menace of piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, areas that are severely affected by the incidents of piracy in the recent past. He argued that initially pirates were more of a… Continue reading Sea Piracy and India’s Future Role

Chair: Amb (retd) R. RajagopalanDiscussants: Prof. K. R. Sharma and Mr. M. V. Rappai The core argument of Dr. Das’s paper was that the Sino-Pakistani strategic axis has gained salience in the context of the geo-politics of the cold war. It should be perceived as a marriage of convenience, contrary to what both China and… Continue reading Pakistan as a Factor in Sino –Indian Relations

Chairperson: Dr Arvind GuptaDiscussants: Lt Gen Ravi Sawhney (Retd) and Prof Kalim Bahadur Dr Pattanaik’s paper critiqued India’s existing policy towards Afghanistan and offered some recommendations for Indian policy makers on how best to engage Afghanistan in the coming days, especially in the event of the much-anticipated troop withdrawal by the United States from July… Continue reading India’s Afghan Policy: Beyond Bilateralism

Chairperson: Lt Gen Satish Nambiar (Retd)Discussants: Commodore M R Khan (Retd) and Shri Gulshan Luthra Dr. P.K. Pradhan’s paper focused on the topic of India’s defence diplomacy in the Gulf, with existing relations between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as the basis for the study. Pradhan has illustrated in this study that… Continue reading India’s Defence Diplomacy in the Gulf

Chair: Lt. Gen. Satish NambiarDiscussant: Admiral Raja Menon and Sheelkant Sharma The paper presented was of a conceptual nature which adopted the offence-defence theory to analyze the character of missile defences, its impact on nuclear deterrence equations and its potential to cause security dilemma. “The paper makes two arguments: (a) Missile defences are instruments of… Continue reading Offensive Defence: Managing deterrence and arms race in a ballistic missile defence environment

Chairperson: Dr. Arvind GuptaDiscussants: Brig. (Retd.) Rahul Bhonsle, Col. Navneet Kumar, Dr. Rajiv Anantaram, Dr. Jabin Jacob Namrata Goswami’s paper focused on four alternative scenarios in 2031 with regard to China’s territorial claim on the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh. At the outset, the author discussed the three drivers of uncertainty, which could influence the… Continue reading China’s Territorial Claim on the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh: Alternative Scenarios 2031

Chairperson: Narendra Sisodia (DG, IDSA)Discussants: P.S. Das, Vice Admiral (retd.), Dhirendra Singh (IAS), Prof. Rajesh Rajgopalan (JNU) This paper examines civil-military relations in India and argues that it has an adverse impact on the country’s military effectiveness. Anit Mukherjee introduced the paper by trying to situate Indian civil-military relations in the theoretical construct and argued… Continue reading The Absent Dialogue: Civil-Military Relations and Military Effectiveness in India

Chairperson: Brigadier R .Dahiya (Retd), Advisor, Military Affairs Cluster, (IDSA)Discussants: Prof Anirudh Deshpande (University of Delhi) and Sqn Ldr RTS Chhina (Retd), Secretary Armed Forces Historical Research, USI of India. PK Gautam introduced the paper by saying that in India there is a knowledge gap in the pursuit of contemporary military history in the framework… Continue reading Renaissance of Military History, War and International Studies in India

Chairperson: Ambassador Ishrat AzizDiscussants: Professor Qamar Agha and Professor A K Ramakrishnan Dr. Rizvi started his presentation with the concept of velayat-e-faqih and its evolution. Velayat-e-Faqih is the most important institution in the post-revolution political system of Iran. The essence of this theory, developed and applied by Ayatollah Khomeini, is that one man with a… Continue reading The Role and Impact of Supreme Leader (Velayat-e Faqih) on Iranian Foreign Policy

Chairperson: Dr R N DasDiscussants: Professor Baladas Ghoshal and Shri C S Kuppuswamy The author analysed the developments in civil-military relations in Indonesia especially in the post Suharto era. He highlighted the fact that Indonesia charted its own civil military relation and almost defied the predetermined path laid out by theoreticians. He also argued that… Continue reading Civil-Military Relations in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Chairperson: Professor V P DuttDiscussant: Professor Mohammad Badrul Alam The broad theme of Dr. Rajaram Panda’s presentation was India-Japan economic relations, while the key focus was on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). At the outset, he made it clear that the paper would not attempt to examine India-Japan economic relations in detail, but only examine… Continue reading India-Japan Economic Relations: Focus on the DMIC

Chairperson: Dr Rajaram PandaDiscussants: Professor K V Kesavan and Professor Srabani Roy Choudhury The author tried to demonstrate Japan’s approach to India using the three characteristics that she perceived to be the central determinants of policy: 1) the international geopolitical structure, 2) elite perceptions and dominant norms, and 3) commercial and economic diplomacy. Through these… Continue reading Playing ‘catch up’: Japan’s foreign policy towards India – a case of delayed realism