Act Africa – A Case for Soft Diplomacy More concentration on the soft diplomatic efforts with greater emphasis on people to people connects and carrying out capacity building where people matter should be the focus of the government. Soft diplomacy through regular and assertive visits by top functionaries of the nation namely the President, Vice President, Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister is the best strategy to enhance relations with African countries. Swaim Prakash Singh | January-June 2018 | Africa Trends
Radicalisation in South East Africa: A case study of Mozambique The distinct feature of radicalisation in Mozambique is that local issues enable the Ansar ul Sunna to conduct its nefarious activities. So rather than take a hard approach, it would serve the Government well to address the growing local concerns of unemployment, social exclusion and underdevelopment in order to curb the influence of Islamic extremism in Mozambique. Mathew Sinu Simon | January-June 2018 | Africa Trends
Is Liberia ready to keep its own peace? After the UNMIL exit, sustaining the peace that was achieved with the help of UN peacekeepers is the most significant challenge before the government. It needs a comprehensive vision, more resources, and stronger political will. It also requires international, regional and sub-regional support. Rajeesh Kumar | January-June 2018 | Africa Trends
Military Expenditure in Africa An audit of required military capabilities and therefore, military expenditure in Africa, is essential. Efforts need to focus on scaling down of conventional military capabilities. An appropriate step taken in this direction at this juncture will assist Africa in achieving its visionary goal of Agenda 2063. Kishore Kumar Khera | January-June 2018 | Africa Trends
Faith, Unity, Discipline: The ISI of Pakistan by Hein G. Kiessling The work of intelligence agencies is a grey area and any attempt to ‘lift the veil’ is an uphill task, shrouded in uncertainty and doubt, and suspect as to the authenticity of the information brought out into the open. Notwithstanding this, it has been established beyond doubt that intelligence agencies have a major say in strategic events both at the international and national levels. Given a free hand, they might end up ‘controlling the controllers’. Vishal Kumar Verma | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
India’s Pathways for Regional Prominence in Asia-Pacific: Prospects and Challenges Asian geopolitics currently represents a complex blending of power and paradox, both stable and fluid, with change occurring against an unresolved tension between the direction of economic growth and that of strategic anxiety. With the continent turning into the economic growth engine of the world, regional geopolitics is witnessing friction between Asian powers that had previously kept economic and political separation from one another. Abhay Kumar Singh | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
Balochistan, the British and the Great Game: The Struggle for the Bolan Pass, Gateway to India by T.A. Heathcote The book traces the history and events of the nineteenth century in a sparsely populated desert area of Asia, Balochistan, an area (inhabited by the tribal Baloch people) and brings out the strategic importance attached to the Bolan Pass by the colonial British. Y.M. Bammi | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
Compact Fusion: Are the Energy Equations About to Change? Advanced technologies and supercomputing have accelerated the pace of research and development in the field of nuclear fusion. Atul Pant | January 10, 2018 | IDSA Comments
Drones: An Emerging Terror Tool From the days of their inception, remotely piloted aero models (known popularly as drones) have been feared as a means of spreading terror. Recently, the use of drones by terrorist outfits like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State (IS), has seen an increase and this has brought those fears to the fore. Experts fear that the drones have given terrorists a near-perfect solution for spreading terror and a major terror act may be around the corner as legal and illegal drone activities are on the rise. Atul Pant | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
Doklam and the Indo-China Boundary On 19 December 2017, three days ahead of the scheduled 20th Round of Indo-China border talk between the Indian National Security Advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval, and China’s State Councillor, Yang Jiechi (the details of which are yet to be made public), the daily Times of India reported a statement by China that the Doklam standoff posed a ‘major test’ for the bilateral ties and that lessons should be learnt from it to avoid a similar situation of its kind in the future.1 China’s statement was made in the context of the face-off between Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PL A.K. Bardalai | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
