Publication Filter

India and Central Asia: Need for a Pro-active Approach

India has traditionally attached great importance to its relations with Central Asia. But, unfortunately, the relationship faces several constraints including the lack of direct access to Central Asia; the unstable situation in Afghanistan and a problematic India-Pakistan relation.

Arvind Gupta
October 14, 2013
Policy Brief

India-Australia Maritime Cooperation: Raising the Pitch

Both India and Australia are trying hard to shed their traditional reticence and engage in the maritime domain, with both sides agreeing to a drastic overhaul of the existing exchanges.

Abhijit Singh
October 14, 2013
IDSA Comments

China’s ‘Three Warfares’ and India

For the past decade, China is known to have actively used ‘three warfares’ (3Ws) strategy—media, psychological and legal warfare—to weaken its adversaries in regions constituting what it perceives to be its ‘core interests’. While a wide range of tools have been deployed, the attacks have remained mostly confined to Taiwan and South-East Asian states involved in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. But with Beijing’s influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) growing, there is evidence emerging of the 3Ws strategy being put to use against India.

The Rational Believer: Choices and Decisions in Madrasas of Pakistan, by Masooda Bano

The Rational Believer is a result of three years of research and field trips in Pakistan by the author and examines the post-9/11 image of madrasas in Pakistan. The findings are correlated with socio-economic theories and explain the logic of the teachings of Quran, where appropriate. Analyses of what makes a believer endure hardships, why jihadis attack fellow Muslims and what makes them martyrs (shuhada) are also carried out.

Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present, by Kaushik Roy

In the academic field of modern history studies, historians dealing with South Asia largely neglect the historical evolution of military–strategic thought on the Indian subcontinent. It is also true that, both for political scientists and scholars of the specialized field of strategy, it is not very common to find people engaging with theories other than Western theories of warfare.1 Nevertheless, the new generation of scholars has started to deal with these subjects.

Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific, by C. Raja Mohan

Samudra Manthan is a book whose time has come. It brings to the table the other dimension of the Sino-Indian rivalry, which is often missed by the larger group of policymakers: the maritime and naval aspects of the relationship. Raja Mohan borrows from Indian mythology in selecting the name of this lucid and well-researched account of the emerging frontiers of Sino-Indian rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.

The Rise of the Indian Navy: Internal Vulnerabilities, External Challenges, edited by Harsh V. Pant

Since antiquity the Indian Ocean has been the centre of human progress, a great arena in which many civilizations have mingled, fought, and traded on important trade routes criss-crossing the waters around India for thousands of years. The entry and exit is to this vast water body is through four ‘gates’ or choke points: the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb; around South Africa’s Cape Agulhas; the Strait of Malacca; and past Australia’s Cape West Howe.

Strategic Perspectives on Growth Phases and Long-term Techno-economic Performance of India’s DRDO

The future of an organization is less determined by outside forces than by its history and the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is no exception. This article analyses the major achievements and shortfalls of the DRDO. It models the strategic dimensions of organization development. The value of production from defence industries arising from DRDO technology transfers is rapidly escalating, enabling the government’s goal of self-reliance.

The Cholas: Some Enduring Issues of Statecraft, Military Matters and International Relations

The article addresses the deficit in the indigenous, rich historical knowledge of south India. It does this by examining the military and political activities of the Cholas to understand the employment of various supplementary strategies. The article deals with the engagements and battles of the Cholas with other kingdoms of south India, and ‘externally’ with Sri Lanka. It begins with an exposition of various types of alliances that were an integral part of the military strategy of the time.

Letter to the Editor

My overall impression is that the Army has been unduly harsh and self-deprecatory regarding the present state of its moral health. As against this, the Army’s track record has been excellent through all wars and operations since independence, except in 1962. In addition, the Army has done sterling work in quelling or containing various insurgencies in Nagaland, Punjab and, above all, the virulent, decades old insurgency in Kashmir, which is still raging intensely. In spite of the most strenuous efforts made by Pakistan, Kashmir still remains under Indian control.