Australia and India in Asia: When ‘Look West’ Meets Act East The recent Australian decision to extend civilian nuclear cooperation to India, overriding its own long-term principled position, is no ordinary development. Taking that as a starting point, this article seeks to set out the context and rationale for an all-round and long-term closer relationship between the two countries. Vishal Ranjan | September 2016 | Strategic Analysis
India’s Decision Making on Cross-Border Natural Gas Pipelines (1989–2012) In the last two decades, cross-border gas pipelines have become an integral part of discourse on India’s energy security. Successive reports from the government and the private sector have envisaged an important role for cross-border gas pipeline projects in India. After engaging in negotiations for several years, the Indian Government finally joined the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline over the Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline (IPI) and the Myanmar–Bangladesh–India pipeline (MBI). Sanket Sudhir Kulkarni | September 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Assessing India’s Rise and the Road Ahead This article analyses India’s economic, military and political rise in the international state system. It concludes that India is on the rise in all three power dimensions, underpinned by a larger share of global GDP. However, it also identifies the constraints on the way. On matters concerning its economy, India lags behind in industrial prowess, innovation, socio-economic development and financial strength. While modernising its defence capabilities, it faces obstacles due to budget issues, institutional constraints and a weak defence industry. Samuel Bergenwall | September 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Mass Media in Xi’s China: Markets Versus Control Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in November 2012 and the President of the People’s Republic of China in March 2013. Ever since, under his leadership as the Chinese President, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been progressively tightening its control over the media. In a Communist structure, the media is perceived to be the ‘mouthpiece’ of the Party and is supposed to be used for propaganda. Media is a very essential tool in spreading the government agenda and controlling the public discourse. Gunjan Singh | September 2016 | Strategic Analysis
The Roadmap for India’s Nuclear Security A watershed moment for nuclear security was reached when global leaders from more than 50 countries including India and other organisations met successively over six years (2010–2016) to develop an effective and sustainable plan for global nuclear security. At the end of six years, much has been accomplished to improve and upgrade nuclear security in several countries. Despite this perseverance, threats to nuclear security still remain undiminished, primarily because wrong people nursing a malicious agenda desire nuclear and radiological materials. Reshmi Kazi | September 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Revival of the Russian Military: An Assessment Russia’s military intervention in Syria – its first beyond its immediate neighbourhood since the end of the Cold War – highlights the significant transformation that its armed forces have gone through. Rajorshi Roy | August 31, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Argentina’s Military Decline While the Argentinian military’s desperate state of affairs can be partly blamed on the country’s economic woes, a substantial portion of the blame must fall on the somewhat tense relationship between the military and the civilian government. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj | August 30, 2016 | IDSA Comments
A French Solution to India’s Defence Acquisition Problem The biggest lesson that India can borrow is France’s integrated and centralised procurement structure, which has the dual responsibility of arms acquisition and defence industrial development. Laxman Kumar Behera | August 29, 2016 | Special Feature
Rebuilding the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard A scramble for assets between the years 2013 and 2015 culminated in the procurement of a fleet of vessels that have restored a degree of capability and viability to the TTCG. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj | August 26, 2016 | IDSA Comments
NSG and China’s Grand Strategic Flip-flops: Some Plausible Explanations Given that the NSG may not be able to withhold the India membership question for long, in spite of China’s inconsistent positions, it would be unwise on India’s part to forfeit any advantage it has on the SCS issue. A. Vinod Kumar | August 24, 2016 | IDSA Comments
