China’s Military Reforms: Is All Well With the PLA? If PLA doesn’t change its ‘army-centric’ character and make way for professionals with domain expertise, the higher defence organisation will continue to be weak and the reform only in name. Mandip Singh | March 09, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Gilgit Baltistan as Fifth Province: Reconciling with the Status Quo? Gilgit Baltistan’s absorption may signal a paradigmatic shift in Pakistan’s Kashmir strategy. However, Pakistan would have to reset the contours of its position on Kashmir including an implied acceptance of the status quo. Priyanka Singh | March 04, 2016 | IDSA Comments
All About Pay and Perks: India’s Defence Budget 2016-17 The two heads of expenditure which have witnessed significant growth in the defence budget 2016-17 are the salary component of the armed forces and the defence pensions. Laxman Kumar Behera | March 03, 2016 | Issue Brief
Defence Budget 2016-17: A Clear Message to the Armed Forces It is time India devised appropriate tactics to meet the current threat. It is imperative that the armed forces prepare for ‘the most likely scenario’ rather than ‘the worst case scenario’. But to be fair, this can only be done when there exists a clear national military policy/strategy. Ramesh Phadke | March 02, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Metamorphosis of the Defence Budget 2016-17 The defence budget for the next fiscal has been completely restructured, making it difficult to make like-to-like comparisons. The growth in the defence budget is bound to disappoint the strategic community, notwithstanding the economic factors that may be responsible for it Amit Cowshish | March 02, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Significance of the November 2015 Myanmar Elections Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide majority in the openly contested elections Myanmar held on Sunday, November 8, 2015.The NLD won a convincing majority with 255 seats in the lower house, 135 in the upper house and 496 seats in the state and regional legislatures. This paves the way for election of President of its choice and forming a government. The election had 33.5 million eligible voters (over 18 years) of Myanmar’s 52 million population. Udai Bhanu Singh | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Asian-African Century with Two Centres of Gravity: Reconciling the Potential of India with China, Already a Peer of the US While China and the United States (US) have recognised the strategic significance of the re-emergence of Asia, India has yet to see itself as one of the two centres of gravity in Asia, as has been the case throughout civilisation, having close trade links with Africa. Mukul Sanwal | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
The Escalating South China Sea Dispute – Lessons for India For Indian observers, it is useful to extrapolate known Chinese position in the Indian Ocean Region and assess Beijing’s likely strategic behaviour. Indian policymakers might well recognise the fact that once China finds itself in a position of maritime advantage, diplomatic engagement has limited utility as a bargaining tactic. Abhijit Singh | March 01, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Union Budget 2016-17: Deciphering the Defence Budget The underutilisation of allocated funds suggest that the meagre funds available in the modernisation budget after catering for committed liabilities have not been fully utilised. Thus, a thorough introspection for better expenditure management is needed. Vinay Kaushal | March 01, 2016 | IDSA Comments
The China–Pakistan axis: Asia’s new geopolitics by Andrew Small ‘“It is a little naive to think that the trouble with China was essentially due to a dispute over some territories. It had deeper reasons.”—Jawaharlal Nehru’ (p. 68). ‘“China has a good understanding of almost everything in Pakistan, political security or economic, that might affect the bilateral relationship, but there is one piece they just don’t get: Islam”—Pakistani Sinologist, Islamabad’ (p. 81). Satyam Malaviya | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
