The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion and the Rise of Trump: Patrick Porter, Polity Press, Cambridge and Medford The coming of Donald Trump to power as the 45th President of the United States amounted to a moment of reckoning for the American foreign policy establishment. With his unconventional posturing and populist moorings, the Trump presidency seemed antithetical to Washington DC’s ‘Blob’ worldview that guided American foreign policy in the post-Cold War years. Sanjeet Kashyap | November 2022 | Strategic Analysis
Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration: Christopher Snedden, Manchester University Press, Manchester Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration by noted author and expert Christopher Snedden touches upon a raw nerve in the discourse on Kashmir—the aspiration for independence. Snedden describes how and where exactly the idea germinated, sequentially tracing its evolution. This is Snedden’s third book on Kashmir; the first focussed on the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)’ that together with Gilgit-Baltistan forms Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The second book focused primarily on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in India. Priyanka Singh | November 2022 | Strategic Analysis
China in India’s Post-Cold War Engagement with Southeast Asia: Chietigj Bajpaee, Routledge, Abingdon, UK The commemoration of 2022 as the ‘ASEAN-India Year of Friendship’ marks thirty years of the partnership between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Beginning in 1992 with India’s ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP), renamed ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP) in 2014, India has progressed from being a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992 to a Dialogue Partner in 1996 and a Summit-level Partner in 2002. Amrita Jash | November 2022 | Strategic Analysis
A Decade of US ‘Pivot to Asia’ The Biden administration has further reinforced and strengthened US strategic priorities towards the Indo-Pacific, a decade after the ‘Pivot to Asia’ by the Obama administration. Anushka Saxena | October 27, 2022 | IDSA Comments
The Reality of AI Drones: Are they Overhyped? Drones, often referred to as ‘dull, dirty and dangerous’, are fast becoming crucial to militaries around the world as a force multiplier Kritika Roy | October-December 2022 | Journal of Defence Studies
Drone Warfare: History, Evolution and Future When Tesla and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk, in a room full of US Air Force personnel, asserted that autonomous drone warfare is the future and will replace fighter jets, it sparked a controversial but crucial debate.1 The decade post 9/11 saw the proliferation of drones in the military domain. Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used extensively to disable conventional weapon systems in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Ukraine. Hence comes the conundrum of replaceability and disruptiveness of conventional warfare vis-à-vis drone warfare. Krutika Patil | October-December 2022 | Journal of Defence Studies
Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS): Future of Warfare The history of war is replete with instances where a nation that has effectively, and innovatively harnessed technology has been victorious. From innovations stem revolutions in military warfare, and the current world order is witnessing a very profound and rapid revolution through the employment of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), be it in conventional conflicts such as Nagorno–Karabakh (Azerbaijan–Armenia), the current Russia–Ukraine conflict or the unconventional ‘Global War on Terror’ in Afghanistan. Apratim Sharma | October-December 2022 | Journal of Defence Studies
AI and the Future of Air Combat in India In his autobiography Hawkeye, Israeli fighter ace Giora Even-Epstein recalls flying the Fighting Falcon F-16, and comments that “Flying an F-16 was different than any other plane I’d ever flown. It felt like it was the computer more than the pilot that was flying the plane.” Bulbul Prakash | October-December 2022 | Journal of Defence Studies
Maintenance Ecosystem of Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) in Military Aviation India’s commercial drone industry is growing and the drone market is expected to become a multi-billion-dollar industry over the next decade. In this drone era, the smaller drone systems, that is, small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) are also gaining traction in Indian armed forces for use in Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and as armed sUAS for kamikaze role. A. Karunakaran | October-December 2022 | Journal of Defence Studies
IADD Reinvigorates India’s Defence Cooperation with African Countries The second India–Africa Defence Dialogue at DefExpo 2022 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat has opened multiple pathways for defence cooperation between India and Africa. Ruchita Beri | October 18, 2022 | IDSA Comments
