India at Risk by Jaswant Singh The book covers reflections of a soldier-turned-politician on the security challenges faced by India since her independence. The author has covered major events like the 1947–48 Kashmir War, the 1962 India–China War and the 1965 Indo-Pak War (the two operations in which he participated), besides the 1971 War for Liberation of Bangladesh and other events till the 1990s, based on research material. Y.M. Bammi | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
India’s Defence Procurement Procedure: Assessing the Case for Review and Reforms his Issue Brief examines certain provisions relating to intellectual property rights and transfer of technology in India’s defence procurement procedures, together with suggestions on streamlining the same for achieving enhanced procurement efficiencies in capital acquisitions. Sandeep Verma | October 17, 2014 | Issue Brief
Turkey: ‘Sick Man’ of NATO In the West, there is growing realisation that only boots on the ground can defeat or substantially destroy the Daesh. Unless a ground force capable of taking back the territories seized by the Daesh arrives on the scene, the advantage will lie with the jihadis. Sandhya Jain | October 17, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Can ISIS be degraded and destroyed? With the US determined not to commit troops, the military defeat of ISIS, at present, is therefore neither feasible nor imminent. Neither the so-called retrained Iraqi Army, nor US air power against this powerful and motivated force will be sufficient. R. S. Kalha | October 17, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Insurgency in North-East India: External Dynamics State and non-state elements in India’s neighbourhood have been supporting insurgency in the North-East to weaken the Indian state. In the 1960s and 1970s, insurgents from the region, particularly the Naga rebels, had received moral and material support from China. Moreover, elements in Pakistan and Bangladesh too have been aiding North-East Indian insurgents from time to time. Sushil Kumar Sharma | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
Indian Perceptions of China’s Maritime Silk Road Idea The Maritime Silk Road (MSR) idea is part of this wider attempt by China to construct multiple lines of communication to its economic heartland in eastern China since the early 2000s. The underlying aim of such a geostrategy is to also develop inner Chinese provinces and shape China’s regional periphery by exercising economic, political and cultural Influence. Zorawar Daulet Singh | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
Energy and Security in South Asia: Cooperation or Conflict? by Charles K. Ebinger South Asia, with its legacy of suspicion, mistrust, ethnic sectarianism, and political parochialism would have fallen off the global map had it not been for its large and growing populations. Its people are poor largely because they do not have access to commercial energy. This is, perhaps, the greatest challenge that governments of the region face. Rakesh Chopra | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
North East in BCIM-EC: Problems and Prospects Widespread problems have made the operating environment ‘dysfunctional and inefficient’. Some of this is on account of inscrutable issues like ‘integration of the services with the MoD’ or ‘civil-military relations’ but, in large part, the immediate problem lies with MoD’s inability to resolve more mundane issues. Rupak Bhattacharjee | October 14, 2014 | IDSA Comments
Pakistan the Garrison State: Origins, Evolution, Consequences 1947–2011 by Ishtiaq Ahmed Pakistan has had a distinctive and chequered trajectory since its creation in August 1947, following the partition of British India, and was conceived on the basis of the contested two-nation theory. The latter formulation, championed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, averred that the Muslims of the subcontinent needed their own state and against aback drop of cynical realpolitik considerations and venal politics, the new state was born in the womb of intense Hindu–Muslim communal violence. C Uday Bhaskar | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
Embedding India in Asia: Reaffirming the Indo-Pacific Concept The emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a new geopolitical frame of reference is embedded in the growing strategic importance of the maritime domain and the rise of states that have demonstrated the ability to ‘transcend’ their respective subregions. However, the Indo-Pacific remains a concept in its infancy, as evidenced by the fact that it continues to compete with alternative conceptions of regional space in Asia. Chietigj Bajpaee | October 2014 | Journal of Defence Studies
