Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Trends and Challenges Pakistan's most critical foreign policy concerns in the last few years relate to the deadlock in relations with India and India's success in isolating Pakistan regionally and internationally due to its support for terrorism. The success of its peace overtures to Afghanistan are constrained by various complexities arising out of the unpredictable situation in Afghanistan and the role of external powers like the US, China and Russia in the ongoing peace process. Sumita Kumar | | Occasional Papers
Measures To Deal With Left – Wing Extremism/Naxalism The assertions by the Ministry of Home Affairs that the Maoist challenge could be dealt with in three years seems to be ambitious, given present-day the ground realities. If coordinated action is taken, perhaps, their challenge could be defeated in approximately seven to 10 years. A welcome development is that the various state governments and the Union Government have begun to evince willingness to deal with the issue. Doubtless, the Maoist challenge can certainly be defeated. P. V. Ramana | | Occasional Papers
The Acquisition of Rafale Aircraft: Facts and Concerns That Ought To Be In the Public Domain The acrimonious debate in the public space on the acquisition of Rafale aircraft has been primarily focused on a few issues. The debate does not inform the public about the long, arduous and complex nature of the programme and the joint effort invested in it. The uniqueness of this programme is also not in the public domain. It does not specifically inform the lay person as to the rationale for restricting the numbers to two squadrons, and carries on oblivious of the collateral effect it may have on future acquisition programmes. Vinay Kaushal | | Occasional Papers
Northeast India: Linguistic Diversity and Language Politics The language issue has the potential to explode into ethnic conflicts and as a result it requires critical analysis and farsighted action from the government and the linguistic groups in question. T.T. Haokip | | Occasional Papers
Defence Innovations in India: The Fault Lines The Occasional Paper examines India's defence innovation performance, especially of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the defence industry. The paper argues that the innovation performance of these two players is constrained by lack of a higher organisational structure which could provide direction and required thrust to the indigenous R&D. Laxman Kumar Behera | | Occasional Papers
New Evidence on China’s Intent behind Its Approach to the Sino-Burmese Territorial Dispute 1954-1960 This paper features a detailed discussion of a speech by Zhou Enlai on July 9, 1957 which was meant to outline “New China's” approach to the Sino-Burmese border dispute. Hitherto available primary and secondary sources do not disclose much about the contents of this particular speech by Zhou. Qian Zhang | | Occasional Papers
Counterinsurgency and “Op Sadhbhavana” in Jammu and Kashmir Critiques of the Indian Army's counterinsurgency practice have overlooked a critical aspect of “organisational innovation and operational learning” formalised as Op Sadhbhavana. These initiatives have had a limited but salutary impact in transforming the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. Arpita Anant | | Occasional Papers
Chemical Weapons Convention: Past, Present and Future The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. This convention came into force on 29 April 1997. This convention is the effort of some 20 years of negotiations at the Conference of Disarmament (CD). Ajey Lele , Natallia Khaniejo | | Occasional Papers
Coastal Security Arrangement: A Case Study of Gujarat and Maharashtra Coasts Lack of manpower, training, infrastructure and coordination coupled with other systemic flaws and state government’s indifference to coastal security have severely undermined the efficacy of the coastal security apparatus. Pushpita Das | | Occasional Papers
India’s Nuclear Triad: A Net Assessment This paper discusses such delivery mechanisms commonly known together as nuclear triad in the Indian context. The paper has four major parts. The first part attempts to set the context for the overall discussion. The second, third and fourth parts deals with the evaluation about missile forces, aerial platforms and submarine based platforms for nuclear weapon delivery on the targets. Ajey Lele , Parveen Bhardwaj | | Occasional Papers