Publication Filter

The BRI and India’s Grand Strategy

India’s rejection of the BRI for strategic reasons does not mean it is resistant to Chinese investments, which are—to the contrary—both welcome and rapidly increasing. Indian strategy in this respect is in accord with the changing character of the international system, where strategic competition co-exists with economic cooperation as well as competition. In contemporary international politics, structurally driven conflictive behaviour is modified by high levels of strategic and economic interdependence.

Islamism and intelligence in South Asia: militancy, politics and security

State sponsorship of terrorism is a complex and often ignored subject in contemporary security studies discourses. As stated by the British military historian Adrian Weale and noted in the foreword of Islamism and Intelligence in South Asia, ‘[i]nternational terrorism rarely happens without a state sponsor, directly or indirectly’ (p. x). Covert and overt support to terrorist groups to fulfil the state’s interest was a feature of international terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s.

Challenges in Europe: Indian Perspectives

Europe is a vast expanse of land marked by diversity in terms of people, places, preferences, cultures and beliefs. Scholarly works, however, often reduce European plurality to one or a few countries and this becomes starker when studying the dynamics of India’s relations with the continent. Therefore, focusing on the European Union (EU) rather than Europe makes it more appropriate and fathomable when trying to understand contemporary Europe and the emerging contours of its relations with India.

No Place for Russia: European Security Institutions Since 1989

The dissolution of the Soviet Union, conflicts in former Soviet republics and in the Balkans, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria, the war in Georgia and the confrontation in Ukraine—the last three decades have seen a series of events which affected the European security agenda. Since 1989, Russia has been participating in European affairs as a member of several forums and has been a party to multiple agreements.

A Life Plucked Out of the Archives

It is not easy to turn somebody’s personal archive, even if it is well kept, into a book − that too a biography − without falling in love with the person, his times, the ideological cross-currents he swam with or against, and the historical significance of the character. Such efforts are really commendable when the person of the archives leaves an indelible mark as an ‘ideological beacon and moral compass’ to a leader of consequence, who steered a nation through one of the most tumultuous periods of its history.