Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
मनोहर पर्रिकर रक्षा अध्ययन एवं विश्लेषण संस्थान

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Challenges for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

Chemical science has a direct relationship with human life. In order to celebrate the value of chemistry, the United Nations (UN) has declared 2011 as the ‘International Year of Chemistry’. Various bodies of the UN including UNESCO and other organisations like the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been entrusted with popularising the science of chemistry.

India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia by Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur Columbia University Press, New York, 2010, 152 pp., Rs 325, ISBN 0-2311-4374-5

India, Pakistan and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia is a strategic debate between the optimists and pessimists on whether the nuclearisation of South Asia has stabilised the subcontinent or whether proliferation has rendered it more dangerous. Authored by Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur, the book examines the question as to whether the decision to exercise the nuclear option by India and Pakistan was a prudent one: Did India's nuclear capability accord it a great power status? Did the Pokhran II tests of May 1998 make India more secure?

India–Bangladesh Land Border: A Flawed Inheritance and a Problematic Future

India shares 4095 kilometres of land and river boundaries with Bangladesh. The border is porous, criss-crossed by rivers and hilly and mountainous terrain which has made the guarding of this border extremely difficult. Border is a political construction. People living in the villages adjacent to the border do not subscribe to any concept of nationality or recognise the boundaries of the nation state. For the people living in the ‘borderlands’, a non-existent line bars them from leading the natural existence they have led for centuries.

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.

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).

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.

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