Rajat Kathuria and Sanjana Joshi (eds.), Forty Years of India–Korea Relations and Looking Ahead, Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2014 The year 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between India and South Korea. Even though during the Cold War, India–South Korea relations had to overcome several hiccups, they started flourishing following the end of the Cold War. In fact, in the last two decades the relationship has witnessed tremendous growth in a wide range of areas, including economic, political, socio-cultural and security. Unfortunately, not much work has been undertaken to deal with India–South Korea relations in detail. Pranamita Baruah | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Can Taiwan Talk ‘Political’ with the Mainland? An investigation into the prospects for including political talks in the cross-strait dialogue enables a better assessment of cross-strait relations. China’s push for political talks and Taiwan’s resistance to them imply that their political positions on the fundamental issues of sovereignty and ‘living space’ for Taiwan remain unchanged. Considering Taiwan’s complex domestic political scenario, which is largely against unification with Mainland China, the likelihood of Taiwan agreeing to political talks for unification is remote. Prashant Kumar Singh | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Alan J. Kuperman, Nuclear Terrorism and Global Nuclear Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, 2013 Alan J. Kuperman’s edited volume Nuclear Terrorism and Global Nuclear Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium explores the prospects and challenges involved in the process of global elimination of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). Global commerce in HEU poses the inherent dangers of nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Recognising the above, the volume asserts that, ‘given the vast majority of non-weapons HEU commerce persist[ing]’ (p. 3), the international community needs to undertake concerted measures to minimise the dangers of HEU commerce. Reshmi Kazi | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
An Assessment of the Chinese Dream: 2015 In November 2012, soon after the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Xi Jinping put forward for the first time the idea of the ‘Chinese Dream’. In March 2013, Xi further elaborated on this concept at the closing ceremony of the First Session of the 12th National People’s Congress. R. S. Kalha | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Saudi Arabia: King Salman Faces the 21st Century Since assuming the throne on January 23, 2015 following the death of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s new monarch, King Salman, seems to have set about the task of shaking up the ultraconservative kingdom. The punishment or pardoning of Raef Badawi became the litmus test of the new Saudi monarch’s reign as the blogger’s sentence coincided with the last days of the ailing King Abdullah and King Salman was compelled to face his personal past as promoter of Islamic fundamentalism abroad. Sandhya Jain | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Future of India–China Boundary: Leadership Holds the Key? Will India and China resolve their boundary dispute during the tenure of Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping? The strategic communities in both countries are optimistic, particularly after the high tension prevailing along the border during President Xi Jinping’s tour of India in September 2014. Both Prime Minister Modi and President Xi are seen as decisive leaders.1 Both are expected to hold power in their respective countries for a few years to come. Personalities and personas matter greatly for scoring political brownie points. The boundary dispute, quintessentially, is political in nature. Jagannath P. Panda | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
China’s ‘Maritime Bases’ in the IOR: A Chronicle of Dominance Foretold After a successful visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Colombo in March, Indian policy elite are hopeful that the new Sri Lankan government will roll-back some of the geopolitical concessions made by the Rajapaksa regime to Beijing, thereby restoring India’s primacy in its near neighbourhood. India’s policy elite are hopeful that Maithripala Sirisena, the new president, will roll back some of the geopolitical concessions made by his predecessor to Beijing, thereby restoring Indian primacy in its near neighbourhood. Abhijit Singh | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
China’s Asia Strategy under President Xi Jinping China has reoriented its foreign policy strategy since Xi Jinping became president. This could significantly recast China’s relations with Asian countries. The process that began with Xi Jinping’s coming to power in 2012–2013 reached, in a sense, a definitive moment, with the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs held in Beijing in November 2014. Avinash Godbole | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Visas: How They Work—An India–Bangladesh Case Study A visa is issued to facilitate an individual’s travel to another country in a regulated way. There are agreements between some countries on a no-visa regime; however, most countries do follow some sort of visa system. Typically, a visa allows a person to travel to the destination country as far as the port of entry (airport, seaport or land border crossing) and advises the immigration officer to allow the visitor to enter the country. Sandeep Chakravorty , Sumit Chaturvedi | May 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Emerging Need for Nepali Ecological Task Force (ETF) Units Nepal should raise Ecological Task Force (ETF) units to assist in tasks related to ecological reconstruction. P. K. Gautam | April 29, 2015 | IDSA Comments
