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
Midnight’s furies: the deadly legacy of India’s partition by Nisid Hajari In 2015, when India and Pakistan are into their 69th year of independence, this is an occasion to look back on the lost plot of their strategic engagements. The partition of an undivided India, built upon a malicious traction of ‘two-nation theory’ was further firmed-up with Pakistan’s dealings with its neighbourhood through a consistent conflict-ridden worldview. More so, this idea turned into action—and further obsession, when matters would relate to India. Atul K. Thakur | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Re-emerging Powers and the Impasse in the UNSC over R2P Intervention in Syria The article examines the influence of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) members that acts as an important condition of success for implementation of the three-pillared Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle in case of Syrian conflict. Analysis has revealed two distinctive features of the BRICS’s positions. Firstly, BRICS has placed particular emphasis on there being a reasonable prospect of success before supporting intervention. Christo Odeyemi | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries: Nepal’s Transit Route Negotiations with India There are multiple levels of relationship between India and Nepal. This article deals exclusively with their bilateral transit relations, focusing on their negotiations in the context of Nepal as a landlocked developing country (LLDC). While LLDCs consider their free access to the nearest seaport through a transit country as a natural right, the transit countries often bargain with them from a position of strength. Nihar R. Nayak | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Modelling Multi-actor Security Dilemma Regardless of the everlasting debate whether the nature of the international system is anarchic or cooperative, ‘security dilemma’ remains a well-known and oft-cited concept. Intimately connected to it is the phenomenon of the arms race, which continues to play a significant role in global affairs and in determining relationships among countries. The first part of the article follows a dynamic model which reproduces the behaviour of the Cold War bipolar arms race. Jakub Drmola | March 2016 | Strategic Analysis
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