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Bangladesh’s Extended Continental Shelf: Navigating the Course with India and Myanmar

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay off the coast of Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. With the exception of Bangladesh all the littoral states have reached agreements over their bilateral maritime boundaries. As signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, India and Myanmar had to file their claims by June 29, 2009 and by May 21, 2009 respectively, and Bangladesh has to file its claim by July 27, 2011 to the Commission on the limits of the continental shelf.

The US–Soviet–China Triangle

Of the members of the America-Russia-China triangle, the Soviet Union is the least enthusiastic about its existence. It is open to question whether it is as obsessed as it is said to be with the historic memories of the golden hordes who devastated Russian lands, and whether it equates the Chinese with the dreaded Mongol invaders of previous centuries. But there can be little doubt that it fears a Sino-US collusion against itself.

Tackling Somali Piracy Ashore: Maritime Security and Geopolitics in the Indian Ocean

As high-profile incidents of piracy become more common off Somalia, strategists have taken to urging the US government to send expeditionary forces ashore. The article uses history and Clausewitzian theory to estimate the nature of the threat and the likely efficacy of a land campaign. Even successful operations would entail costs exceeding the value of the political stakes. For this reason alone, going ashore is inadvisable.

India and the Challenge of Terrorism in the Hinterland

Terrorism in the Indian hinterland is the result of a complex set of inter-related factors. The development of a jihad culture in Pakistan during the course of the Afghan conflict in the 1980s led to the subsequent Pakistani decision to employ jihad against India as a strategy. The mobilisation of the Hindu Right in India and ensuing communal violence led to the radicalisation of Muslim youth and the resort to terrorism by both Indian Islamists and Muslim criminal networks with help from Pakistan.

Internal Security: The Indian Way

There is a view that India's approach to national security is largely ad hoc and marked by incompetence. Indians as well as foreign commentators on the country's security policies seem to share this perception. However, India does have a security approach that has a discernible pattern and arguably has been a success. This comment focuses on how India has dealt with internal security since independence.