Naga Peace Accord and the Kuki and Meitei Insurgencies in Manipur The Naga peace accord is a historic step. It needs to be followed up by correct policy interventions that serve to undercut the relevance of the Kuki and Meitei insurgencies and thus usher in peace in Manipur. Sushil Kumar Sharma | January 05, 2016 | Policy Brief
Nuclear India through a Western Eye Like a section of the US non-proliferation community that relishes supporting and sympathising with China and Pakistan, Levy and the Center for Public Integrity have followed the same approach. Rajiv Nayan | January 04, 2016 | IDSA Comments
Implications of the Dragon’s Rise for South Asia: Assessing China’s Nepal Policy China has always been an important neighbour to Nepal which has otherwise historically been heavily influenced by India. The ‘rise of China’ has created a more outward-looking Middle Kingdom and so its influence in Nepal has significantly increased within the last decade. As a consequence, Nepal is experiencing growing interest from China. This article aims to give some historical background to Sino-Nepalese relations and to measure the most recent impact of the ‘rise of China’ on Nepal, particularly on its economic, military and political fronts. Bibek Chand , Lukas K. Danner | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
India and Central Asia: Untying the Energy Knot India was always aware of the enormous energy reserves within its geographically proximate Central Asian region that could potentially fulfil its energy demands. The recent visit by Prime Minister Modi to the region has proved critical in paving the way for India to finally acquire a long awaited energy stake in the region. The new developments could not have been possible without the evolving undercurrents of the new geopolitical balance of power in the region. Russia seems to be playing a conspicuous role in nudging both India and Pakistan towards cooperation in the energy pipeline. P. Stobdan | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Kurdistan: Ataturk to Öcalan The rise of Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham (Daesh), or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in the vacuum created by the war in these countries has reignited the Kurdish question that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk skilfully bypassed after World War I, when several nation-states were carved out of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Kurdish problem began in the early 19th century when the Ottomans centralised the administration, emphasised Turkish identity, erased the autonomous Kurdish emirates and ruthlessly suppressed their protests. Sandhya Jain | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Assessing India’s Cyber Resilience: Institutional Stability Matters In this commentary, I will use strategic cyberwar theory1 to explain why India has a higher level of cyber resilience than several of its potential adversaries. Even if India has challenges in its government-led cyber defence,2 there are cyber resilience benefits to be drawn from the way Indian society operates, functions and is constitutionally designed and accepted by its constituents, independently of any cyber defence efforts. First, the concept of strategic cyberwar. Jan Kallberg | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Securing Cyberspace: International and Asian Perspectives Publisher: Pentagon Press This edited volume contains the papers presented at the 18th Asian Security Conference at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses held in February 2016. The authors, drawn from government, law enforcement, diplomacy, private sector, armed forces and academia, examine a range of issues central to cybersecurity. The chapters in this volume not only provide an outline of the journey so far, but more importantly, give indicators of future trends in cybersecurity from the vantage point of the respective experts. Contributions from Asia are particularly highlighted to promote and provoke greater discussion on perspective from within the region on cybersecurity issues. ISBN 978-81-8274-918-4, Price: ₹ 1295 E-copy available Cherian Samuel , Munish Sharma | | Book
India–Myanmar Relations: Changing Contours by Rajiv Bhatia Myanmar is an underrated neighbour with the potential to influence India’s vital strategic and economic interests. To keep track of the pulse of the mystic nation that is India’s closest Southeast Asian neighbour demands not just a scholarly approach but an empathy and an emotional connect. Rajiv Bhatia’s book, India–Myanmar Relations, is timely as it comes during a period when Myanmar is going through a significant phase of transition. Myanmar today stands at a crossroads confronted by a combination of developments on the domestic, regional and global planes. Udai Bhanu Singh | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Right Turn in Indian Polity: Modi on BJP’s Chariot by Yogesh Atal and Sunil K. Choudhary Actors, events and processes that determine the characteristics of the political scene in contemporary India may rightly be understood via a number of tropes—all equally useful and deficient at the same time. This is especially true in case of the ongoing churning in Indian democracy. If for the decade of the 1990s the tropes were Mandal, Market and Mandir, the tropes to understand contemporary politics in India have acquired the shape of ‘Governance’ and ‘Development’. Shashank Chaturvedi | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years by A. S. Dulat and Aditya Sinha Until recently, most top officials in India who had dealt with very sensitive issues in government refrained from writing about them. The adage they followed was that what everyone wanted to know could not be written, and what could be written was something that no one was interested in. Not surprisingly, even when former civil servants have written anything, it has generally been a self-serving swansong of their accomplishments, which other than them no one really considers accomplishments. Sushant Sareen | January 2016 | Strategic Analysis
