What does lower oil prices mean for India? The longer the price of oil remains depressed, India, like other major oil importers, will not only increase its dependence on crude imports, but it will also become more dependent on OPEC. Shebonti Ray Dadwal January 18, 2016 IDSA Comments
North Korea and Prospects for Chemical Weapons Disarmament Since its entry into force, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) has made significant progress towards universality with as many as 192 states acceding to the Convention by the end of… Continue reading North Korea and Prospects for Chemical Weapons Disarmament Kapil Patil January-June 2016 CBW Magazine
Arms and the Game: Accepting Competition and Encouraging Cooperation The article approaches the issue of jointness through new lenses. It first describes how and why arms of the military, the ‘Services’, are different from each other. Airpower is shown to be the emerging technological paradigm, triggering paradigm competition. Next, it draws an analogy between anarchy in international relations (IR) and the existence of the services. It then looks at game theory as used in IR to understand both why inter-organisational competition occurs and how cooperation can evolve with a certain kind of behaviour—reciprocity. Ashish Singh January 2016 Journal of Defence Studies
The new impetus in China’s security engagement with Africa The larger ‘China-Africa Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Security’ that was simultaneously launched was meant to integrate security issues into FOCAC, but was in need of further refinement to move from rhetorical commitment to more institutionalised involvement. Susanne Kamerling January-March 2016 Africa Trends
The Niger Delta Avengers: A Formidable Threat? At a time when the country is going through a political transition and the resultant realignment of patronage networks in Niger Delta region, economic woes due to low oil prices, and the revamping of oil industry, the emergence of NDA is a result of the ‘politics of oil’ in Nigeria that has been ongoing for years. Nachiket Khadkiwala January-March 2016 Africa Trends
Cocaine trafficking between Latin America and West Africa The link between narcotics’ traffickers in Latin America and their allies in West Africa has opened another front in the “war on drugs” and has unfortunately led to West Africa becoming home to what has been described as the “world’s first narco state” namely, Guinea-Bissau. The availability of aircraft, pilots and an expanse of airspace without radar coverage, aided and abetted by poorly or corruptly policed borders has led to a thriving trade between the two continents for the enrichment of some and the detriment of many others. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj January-March 2016 Africa Trends
Why Africa? IAFS-III has been a 'great leap forward' compared to our limited approach earlier. Why has India taken this major step, which requires huge deployment of human and financial resources? Debnath Shaw January 13, 2016 IDSA Comments
Strategic Direction of the Chinese Navy: Capability and Intent Assessment by Kamlesh K. Agnihotri Rarely do naval practitioners combine capability and strategy cogently. They are good at explaining technical terminology and its applicability, but insufficient in expounding strategy and analysis. They consider capability in terms of war-oriented applicability, rather than the intention, motivation and strategic outreach of such capability. But if a naval practitioner focuses on strategy and its commensurate capability, he can relatively predict the impact of such capability. Joshy M. Paul January 2016 Journal of Defence Studies
Addressing Maritime Challenges in the Indian Ocean Region: A Case for Synergising Naval Capacities towards Collective Benefits The vastness and diversity of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and its littorals, and difference in the latters’ overall view of regional security, presents a broad spectrum of challenges therein. The maritime capacities of most littoral states are not strong enough to individually address these challenges. However, synergised response strategies, appropriately regulated by one or two collectively mandated apex bodies, would greatly help in managing regional maritime security. Kamlesh K. Agnihotri January 2016 Journal of Defence Studies
Investigating the use of Chemical Weapons in Syria Investigating the use of chemical weapons The first inquiry into the use of chemical weapons (CW) in Syria was the United Nations Secretary-General’s Mechanism (SGM) for Investigation of Alleged use… Continue reading Investigating the use of Chemical Weapons in Syria Cindy Vestergaard January-June 2016 CBW Magazine
