Bringing Fear to the Perpetrators: Humanitarian Cyber Operations as Evidence Gathering and Deterrence Humanitarian cyber operations would allow democratic states to utilise cyber operations as a humanitarian intervention to capture information and create a foundation for decision making for collective international action supported by humanitarian international law. This follows the legal doctrine of responsibility to protect, which relies first on the nation state itself but when the state fails to protect its citizens, then the international community can act, ignoring the repressive or failed state’s national sovereignty. Jan Kallberg | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
MERS: A New Virus Challenge East and Southeast Asia are known to get affected by various diseases routinely. Particularly, various waterborne and other diseases likely malaria and dengue fever commonly affect the regions. There is a concern that global warming may translate into explosive growth of mosquito-borne diseases. In addition to this, growing number of natural disasters are found escalating the health related challenges. All this eventually poses a threat to health, economic and human security. Ajey Lele , Gunjan Singh | July 01, 2015 | IDSA Comments
Interpreting China’s Third Plenum Xi Jinping’s new reformist approach of 2013 is a close reflection of Deng Xiaoping’s prescription of 1978. The Chinese political leadership is tightening its political grip and loosening economic control. China has a tradition of leadership being an economic rightist and a political leftist at the same time. The thesis of Xi Jinping is based upon the conception that one should not use post-reform history to negate the pre-reform years. It also says that one should not ‘exaggerate’ Mao Zedong’s mistakes but should acknowledge his contributions. Keshab Chandra Ratha , Sushanta Kumar Mahapatra | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
India and Pakistan: An Eternal Conflict! Shooting for a Century: Finding Answers to the India–Pakistan Conundrum, by Stephen P. Cohen S. Kalyanaraman | July 2015 | Journal of Defence Studies
Challenges to the Revision of the Nepal–India 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty The contemporary strategic and political environment has gone through tremendous changes in comparison to the context in which the 1950 treaty was signed. The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s August 2014 visit to Nepal, the first by an Indian prime minister in 17 years, has rekindled the hope of improving Nepal–India relations, including revision of the 1950 treaty. Against this backdrop, this article argues that without understanding India’s strategic, security-related and political concerns, revision of the 1950 treaty is highly unlikely. Rohit Karki , Lekhnath Paudel | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Northeastern India and its neighbours: negotiating security and development by Rakhee Bhattacharya The insurgency movement in Northeast India, demanding various forms of autonomy including independence, is a constant concern for the maintenance of the country’s unity. It is further complicated due to the region’s strategic location, being almost entirely surrounded by several countries, and hence any development in these countries will certainly have implications for Northeast India. M. Amarjeet Singh | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Nuclear Security in Asia: Problems and Challenges The importance of nuclear security in Asia needs to be focused upon in view of the emerging challenges of nuclear proliferation, growing nuclear arsenals, expanding civilian nuclear energy programmes, weak export controls, zones of domestic instability and terrorism in several regions within the continent. This article focuses on the factors that pose potential risks to nuclear security in Asia. It emphasises the prevailing factors endangering the security of nuclear and radiological materials in Asia. Reshmi Kazi | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
India’s ocean: the story of India’s bid for regional leadership by David Brewster Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan once stated: ‘Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene. Whoever controls the Indian Ocean dominates Asia. This Ocean is the key to the seven seas in the 21st century, the destiny of the world will be decided in these waters’.1 It is these prophetic words that are the pivot for the book under review, India’s Ocean: The Story of India’s Bid for Regional Leadership. Amrita Jash | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
South China Sea: India’s Maritime Gateway to the Pacific This article looks at India’s interests and strategy in the South China Sea (SCS). First, it highlights India’s maritime interests and discusses the relevance of the SCS to these interests. It then examines some key ingredients of India’s evolving policy initiatives in the region. The article argues that with a considerable expansion of India’s engagement with the South China Sea littoral states, India appears to be genuinely emerging as an indispensable element in the strategic discourse of this region. Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Sri-Yantra and the geophilosophy of India by Niraj Kumar The book, as the title suggests, has Sri-Yantra and geophilosophy as its central themes. Sri-Yantra is a powerful positive energy symbol that is known for bringing peace, prosperity, harmony and good fortune. This powerful Yantra is a diagram based on nine interlocking triangular formulations. It is also known as Srichakra and Indian mystics and gurus have known about it for a long time. Ruchi Shree | July 2015 | Strategic Analysis
