India’s Maritime Diplomacy in Southeast Asia: An Assessment of the INS Sudarshini Expedition INS Sudarshini, India’s Sail Training Ship (STS), was sent on a commemorative expedition to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries for six months along the monsoon trade winds route to trace India’s civilisational and cultural affinities and rejuvenate trade and maritime linkages with its neighbours in the East. The voyage was part of the commemoration of the successful completion of two decades of India’s Look East Policy, 20 years of dialogue relations with ASEAN, and 10 years of India–ASEAN summit-level partnership. Rahul Mishra | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
More Questions than Answers Prachanda’s proposal for trilateral cooperation between India, Nepal and China seems reasonable on the face of it. However, both China and Nepal should be aware that it will create a lot of misunderstandings in India. The reasons for this are as follows: Arvind Gupta | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
Overcoming the Ways of Matsya Nyaya Ancient Indian political thought as given in the niti (moral law) lays down that matsya nyaya (big fish swallowing the smaller fish), which is a law of nature, must be eradicated. However, in spite of best intentions it continues to prevail in internal and international politics. Society is bound together by dharma (justice), which is the great protecting principle, and economic prosperity, moral welfare and cultural advancements are the functions of justice. P. K. Gautam | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
The Kenya-ICC Standoff Uhuru Kenyatta's election as the president of Kenya is important both with respect to the Kenyan internal politics and the larger implications for the legal regime of the International Criminal Court. It remains to be seen that who will bring justice to the families of the dead and displaced after the 2007-08 post election violence. Saurabh Mishra | September 2013 | Africa Trends
Caution is the Key Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, made the trilateral proposal during his official visit to India in April 2013. This was the third time since 2010 that Prachanda had raised this issue. This concept seems to be a modified version of his earlier ‘equidistance policy’, which was declared after he became prime minister in September 2008. He proposed trilateral cooperation for the first time in October 2010 after visiting Beijing. Nihar R. Nayak | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
Terror attack in Kenya: resurgence of Alshabaab? The recent terror attack in Nairobi has brought focus on Kenya's involvement in Somalia and indicates that despite the African Union forces' successes last year the Somalia based terrorist group, Al Shabaab, may have regrouped and emerged stronger. Ruchita Beri | September 2013 | Africa Trends
Is India–Nepal–China Trilateral Cooperation Possible? Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, the chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN) (Maoist), visited India on April 27–30, 2013, shortly after he had returned from a week-long visit to China. During his visits to China and India, Prachanda proposed trilateral cooperation between India, Nepal and China. Although he assured India that this trilateral cooperation would be founded on the bilateral relations that Nepal already shares with India, he clearly did not elaborate on the nature of this trilateral cooperation and the issues that need to be discussed within this framework. Editorial Board | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
China in and Beyond the Headlines The book China in and Beyond the Headlines is a collection of 16 contributions written by scholars and experts on various aspects of Chinese politics, society and economy. Considering that China has undergone a major transformation over the past decades since it opened its economy, this book provides a much-needed insight into the contours and extent of these changes and their impact. The most promising aspect of the book is that it provides information and analysis on almost all the aspects of changes within China. Gunjan Singh | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
Peace or War Journalism: Case Study of the Balochistan Conflict in Pakistan Analysing peace journalism is a difficult task, especially within the context of an ongoing conflict. This study looks at peace journalism as it relates to the Balochistan/Pakistan conflict. Balochistan is a Pakistani province that makes up a large part of the country and is rich in natural resources. The Pakistani government has employed a policy of resource exploitation in the province, withholding any due share of profit from the Baloch. Aarushi Prakash | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
The China Fallacy: How the US Can Benefit from China’s Rise and Avoid another Cold War There have been many studies on US foreign policy towards China dwelling specifically on the efficacy of the US strategy of containment. Donald Gross’s book is an addition to this genre. It basically challenges the wisdom of the current US policy of containing China and offers a ‘new paradigm’ for ‘stable peace’ as an alternative approach for dealing with China and yet keeping US dominance in the Asia-Pacific intact. This new paradigm provides for greater cooperation, co-existence and accommodation with the rising dragon to ensure long-term peace in the international system. Abanti Bhattacharya | September 2013 | Strategic Analysis
