Nigeria’s Naval Power – Reviving capacity after prolonged decline The Nigerian Navy is slowly clawing its way back to being a viable force capable of performing critical missions in respect of EEZ surveillance and patrol. It possesses an adequate fleet of inshore and riverine patrol craft and its growing refit and overhaul capabilities should prove adequate to the task of maintaining these vessels and augmenting them with new construction. However, the Nigerian Navy continues to face capability gaps in respect of the number of major surface combatants as well as the weapons systems available to the fleet. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj July-December 2018 Africa Trends
Functional Maritime Security Enforcement Collaboration: Towards A Sustainable Blue Economy in Africa Africa has an extensive and strategically located maritime space. This domain is vital for various reasons, including its abundance of economic resources and as a conduit for trade. Unfortunately, the potential of the African maritime space is being undermined by persistent, multifaceted and fluid domestic, regional and international threats and vulnerabilities. To tackle this, littoral African states have entered into various collaborative engagements at international and inter-agency level. The success of these arrangements is in turn greatly hampered by various practical challenges, including mistrust, diversity, ‘silo approach’ and lack of identified common Afro-centric security priorities and protocols. An urgent need for a functional collaborative engagement emerges as vital for a sustainable blue economy in Africa. Njoki Mboce July-December 2018 Africa Trends
Under the Radar: China’s Growing Ties with Comoros Aid to, and investment in, strategically located countries in the IOR to establish a strong presence has been the thrust of the Chinese strategy. The steadily growing economic cooperation with Comoros is part of this strategy. For a China with global aspirations and a large economy to bankroll that aspiration, the engagement with Comoros promises to yield significant benefits in return for relatively little. Maitreyee Shilpa Kishor July-December 2018 Africa Trends
Libya’s political process: Delicate progress, gigantic challenges While the political process is delicately poised and is making slow progress, there remain gigantic challenges to surmount. The main issues of contention among the different groups are sharing of political power, fight for control over Libya’s huge petroleum resources, and accommodating the armed groups loyal to different factions into a unified national military force. Prasanta Kumar Pradhan July-December 2018 Africa Trends
Russia’s Foiled Cyber Attack on OPCW Russia’s mushrooming cyber capabilities is well evident in the series of cyber activities that it has been undertaking lately. The country has been blamed for directing a host of cyber-attacks… Continue reading Russia’s Foiled Cyber Attack on OPCW Kritika Roy July-December 2018 CBW Magazine
Mission Overseas: Daring Operations by the Indian Military, by Sushant Singh Military history has four main genres. The first is the ‘official’ military history, or a military historian’s narrative. It is a narration of facts given as accurately as possible, written in an academic manner with maps and sketches. These are difficult to follow by non-military readers and, for that reason, are almost never read by them. The second category are reminiscences (autobiographies or biographies) of those who took part in wars—mostly in important and commanding positions. Ghanshyam Katoch July-September 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Iran Sanctions: India’s Options Given that Iran accounts for around 10 per cent of India total oil imports, the immediate factor for New Delhi will be to look at various options to deal with the situation without jeopardising its energy security. Shebonti Ray Dadwal July 12, 2018 IDSA Comments
The Battlefields of Imphal: The Second World War and North East India, by Hemant Singh Katoch In 2013, in a poll on ‘Britain’s Greatest Battle’, the twin victories at Imphal–Kohima during the Second World War were voted as the winner of the poll. If one recalls popular representations of World War II in this part of the world, what comes to mind immediately is the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness. That the Japanese had reached the eastern borders of British India and posed a great threat to the war effort is something that people may take time to recollect. Y.M. Bammi July-September 2018 Journal of Defence Studies
Curbing Fake News Eradicating the fake news problem calls for a collective effort of individuals, governments, social media and content platforms, and innovative technology solutions. Munish Sharma July 11, 2018 IDSA Comments
Averting India’s Fall into a Geopolitical Trap Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a foreign policy course-correction after realising that the strategic tilt towards the United States has not only grossly upset India’s geopolitical image but also undermined national interests. P. Stobdan July 06, 2018 IDSA Comments