Interrogating International Relations: India’s Strategic Practice and the Return of History by Jayashree Vivekanandan Routledge, London/New York/New Delhi: 2011 Does India have a strategic culture? The conventional answer is ‘no’, especially since George Tanham said so. Jayashree Vivekanandan contests this view, the roots of which she traces to the ‘Orientalist’ construction of Indian culture. S. Kalyanaraman | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka: Time to Move Beyond Complacency Much water has flown down the Mahaveli since the elimination of V. Prabhakaran and decimation of LTTE, the terror outfit he led, in Sri Lanka in May 2009. President Mahinda Rajapaksa cashed in on the situation well; he called for a new presidential election two years before expiration of his term and won it convincingly in January 2010. His party secured an easy and emphatic victory in the subsequent parliamentary elections, short of a two-thirds majority, in April 2010. Ashok K. Behuria | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India by B.G. Verghese Westland, 2010, 573 pp., Rs. 695, ISBN 9-7893-8028-3760 Verghese, B.G. has written several books in his multifaceted career, spanning over six decades. His latest work First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India is somewhat unique and is a summing up of his variegated experiences. It is a valuable addition to the body of work on India's modern ‘general history’ on which, according to the author, little work has been done (p. xii). Priyanka Singh | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
Children of Abraham at War: Clash of Messianic Militarisms, by Talmiz Ahmad Delhi, Aakar Books, 2010, 475 pp., Rs 1250, ISBN 978-93-5002-080-7 Talmiz Ahmad is an Indian Foreign Service officer who has seen extensive service in West Asia. It is apparent his long stint there gave him an opportunity to observe, learn and reflect. The book is an outcome. His thesis is that there has been considerable influence of historical and cultural factors in their interplay on the contemporary situation in West Asia, explained best by his choice of title for his book. Ali Ahmed | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
The Evolving Politics of Taliban Reintegration and Reconciliation in Afghanistan The subject assumes significance in view of the politics evolving around the idea of negotiating peace, especially with the Taliban, as the West plans to withdraw bulk of their troops by 2014. Though often regarded as flawed, ill-timed, regressive, wobbly, dangerous and unworkable, the idea has nevertheless come to dominate the discourse on the Afghan war. However, principal Afghan opposition forces and networks operating from Pakistan continue to publicly rebuff and mock at the government's initiative. Vishal Chandra | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
RoK’s Jeju Island Naval Base The Jeju naval base is intended to serve two objectives: to protect the country from possible missile attacks from North Korea and to allow the United States to station Aegis class destroyers. Rajaram Panda | September 01, 2011 | Issue Brief
India and Iran’s Nuclear Issue: The Three Policy Determinants Three broad policy determinants can be discerned in Indian reactions to the Iranian nuclear issue. These include: ‘strategic autonomy’ as it relates to Indian foreign policy decision making S. Samuel C. Rajiv | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor Harper Collins, New York, 2010, pp. xvii+302, US$ 27.99, ISBN 9780061708770 Rukmani Gupta | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
China’s ‘Military Diplomacy’: Investigating PLA’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations The central focus of this article is to understand the evolution of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's engagement with UN peacekeeping operations in the light of China's military diplomacy. The article underlines that the PLA works as a foreign policy instrument in UN peacekeeping operations and furthers China's foreign policy agenda in many ways. Prashant Kumar Singh | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
India’s International Relations: A Systems Approach The national security of India rests on two basic and mutually supporting premises. The first, of course, is the internal strength, cohesiveness, and firmness of purpose of the nation. The second is the ability of the country to exist and develop in a changing international environment, the hostility or friendship of which is rarely certain and never absolute. It is with the second aspect that we concern ourselves in this article. K. Saigal | September 2011 | Strategic Analysis
