The discreet silence on the NPT The collective silence of the guardians and the state-parties by no means signifies the NPT’s good health, especially when they continue to emphasise upon the slow pace of disarmament and enduring pressures on the non-proliferation regime. A. Vinod Kumar | March 02, 2015 | IDSA Comments
Israel–Gaza Crisis: Understanding the War Crimes Debate The long conflict between Israel and Palestine took a turn for the worse after the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014. G. Balachandran , Aakriti Sethi | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
The ‘Sir Creek’ Dispute: Contours, Implications and the Way Ahead Sir Creek, the 17th and last drainage branch of the river Indus, is a meandering riverine feature approximately 92 km (50 NM) long in the low-lying marshy region of Rann of Kutch. The Sir Creek boundary dispute between India and Pakistan is rooted in differing interpretations of the 1914 resolution passed by the Government of Bombay (GoB) or Bombay Residency. Raghavendra Mishra | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Future of India–Nepal Relations: Is China a Factor? Nepal shares an open border of 1,868 km with five Indian states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim) and 1,415 km with Tibet. Under the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India, Nepali citizens enjoy ‘national’ treatment and Nepali businesses unhindered rights of trade, transit and movement. An estimated six million Nepalese live and work in India and contribute to their inward remittances. Social intercourse along the Gangetic plane is described by people as ‘roti-beti ka sambandh’ (a relationship based on sharing of hearth and marriage). Arun Kumar Sahu | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Chronicling the India–China Puzzle China and India are the emerging economies in Asia and are in close geographical proximity to each other. What makes this relationship complicated is the fact that India and China have a disputed boundary and even though the relationship can be regarded as smooth historically, post-1962 the situation took a turn for worse. Gunjan Singh | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
India’s Military Conflicts and Diplomacy: An Inside View of Decision Making by General V.P. Malik India’s 11th Five Year Defence Plan was completed on March 31, 2012. Throughout its currency, the plan did not receive the approval of the Union Cabinet. The ongoing 12th Defence Plan was ‘approved in principle’ by the Defence Acquisition Council of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but has not yet been approved by the National Security Council (NSC). Also, approval without financial commitment for the full five-year term is meaningless and defence planning in India remains as ad hoc as it has been since independence. Gurmeet Kanwal | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Bargaining on Nuclear Tests: Washington and Its Cold War Deals by Or Rabinowitz In Bargaining on Nuclear Tests, Rabinowitz examines aspects relating to the US entering into informal deals with Israel, South Africa and Pakistan in order to prevent them from testing nuclear weapons. These informal understandings turned a ‘blind eye’ to these countries’ nuclear quests as long as they did not test. The testing of nuclear weapons was seen as overtly harming American non-proliferation goals and potentially embarrassing the US administrations, given that these were America’s Cold War allies. S. Samuel C. Rajiv | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
The Return of Geopolitics in Europe? Social Mechanisms and Foreign Policy Identity Crises by Stefano Guzzini (ed.) The end of the Cold War was one of the defining moments in Europe’s geopolitical history. The ‘frozen spatiality’ that dominated the geopolitical space of Europe for half a century came undone. The emergence of a new spatial reality brought with it a novelty of issues that had to be dealt with by strategic and political elites and their appendages (academia and media). Their interpretation of the end of the Cold War, and the choices they made, were critical in the evolution of a particular type of geopolitical thought and foreign policy discourse. Nachiket Khadkiwala | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Difficulties of Regional Cooperation for Afghanistan: An Alternative Interpretation This article addresses the question of why regional cooperation among Afghanistan’s neighbours has been so difficult despite these countries’ common concerns. To answer this question, Afghanistan is conceptualised as placed at the core of overlapping regions: South Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and, through China’s influence, East Asia. Over the past decade, interactions among different regions ‘through’ Afghanistan have increased, and overlap has intensified. Sandra Destradi | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy by David M. Malone In Does the Elephant Dance, David Malone identifies various aspects of Indian history relevant to foreign policy by examining the role of domestic politics and internal and external security challenges. The author specifically analyses domestic and international economic factors. In several chapters, he evaluates India’s policy towards its South Asian neighbours as well as explaining its multilateral diplomacy with respect to China, the US, West Asia, East Asia (India’s ‘Look East’ policy), Europe and Russia. Uma Nabhi | March 2015 | Strategic Analysis
