The Increasing Complexity of the Internationalised Syrian Conflict Into its third year, the Syrian conflict has been fuelled by a multiplicity of interest groups and countries, overshadowing the initial cause of the protests. Gains for either side in Syria have come to mean corresponding losses for different regional and international stakeholders. Melissa M. Cyrill | July 08, 2013 | Issue Brief
Evolution of Aerial Combat Trends towards direct energy weapons (DEW), though yet to be fully mature and battle proven, indicate a major shift in the conduct of aerial combat in the coming decades. Vivek Kapur | July 08, 2013 | Issue Brief
India Enters New Era of Space Navigation One of the biggest advantages of the navigational satellite, once the system gets fully operational, is to reduce the dependency on the GPS. This would make India largely self-sufficient in the navigational field. Ajey Lele | July 08, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Reinventing Defence Procurement in India: Lessons from Other Countries and An Integrative Framework Over the past decade, defence capital acquisition reforms have enhanced standardization, transparency and bigger acquisition budgets. Yet the system grapples with delays, cost escalations and gaps in operational preparedness. This article explores the structure, process and cultural dimensions of the acquisition system, unpacking the underlying linkages between policy, planning, budgeting, strategic direction, and outcomefocused analytical decision-making—factors that influence effectiveness of the procurement system. Vandana Kumar | July 2013 | Journal of Defence Studies
The Maoist Threat As a nation, we have a tendency to react once a crisis overtakes us. This holds good in the case of natural disasters like the annual floods in the North-East, earthquakes, the tsunami, the most recent calamity in Uttarkhand or national security threats like Kargil, 26/11 in Mumbai, and the Chinese intrusion in Eastern Ladakh in April 2013. To this list can be added the chimera of Maoism or Left-wing Extremism (LWE). Deepak Kapoor | July 2013 | Journal of Defence Studies
Role of the Indian Military in Disasters It needs to be noted that discipline and efficiency is the first demand in disaster response and relief tasks, which are often dangerous missions and quite naturally the military brings in order in post-disaster operations. P. K. Gautam | July 05, 2013 | IDSA Comments
Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap 2013 The objective of the TPCR is to give an opportunity to the Indian industry to draw up business plans for developing technologies which could be transformed into capabilities required by the armed forces. Amit Cowshish | July 02, 2013 | IDSA Comments
How will India Respond to Civil War in Pakistan? In 1971, India intervened militarily on behalf of Bengalis in the civil war in East Pakistan, dividing the country into two. The prospect of another civil war in Pakistan pitting radical Islamists against the secular but authoritarian military raises questions about the possibility, timing, objective, and nature of another Indian intervention. Sunil Dasgupta | July 2013 | Strategic Analysis
Sailing through the Northern Sea Route: Opportunities and Challenges Because of global warming, the thinning ice in the Arctic is opening up the region for navigation for a few months in the summer season. The Arctic littoral countries (Canada, Norway, Denmark [Greenland], Russia and the United States), shipping companies and several other stakeholders (the EU and Asian countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea) are closely tracking shipping related developments in the Arctic and developing strategies to exploit the Northern Sea Route (NSR). V Sakhuja | July 2013 | Strategic Analysis
Future of Golden BRICS With the successful holding of the fifth summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) in Durban during March 26–27, 2013, this influential group of emerging economies completed its first important phase of genesis and evolution. The idea was floated in 2001 as an ‘acronym’ created by an investment banker of Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neil who believed that the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, China and India would be the single greatest game changers in coming times. Swaran Singh | July 2013 | Strategic Analysis