Journal of Defence Studies

India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects, edited by Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das and Manjeet S. Pardesi

The emergence of India as an Asian great power in line with its economic development in recent years is a matter of significant strategic interest regionally and globally. India’s unique position as the world’s most populous democracy, with its diverse societal mix combined with its central geostrategic position, places it at the core of Asian and Indo-Pacific Ocean economic and strategic considerations.

Nanotechnology: Current Global Trends and Future Military Applications for ‘Soldier as a System’

The last decade has witnessed unprecedented developments in the discovery of novel materials and their radically different properties at nano scales. Global efforts in research and development (R&D)in nanotechnology are being undertaken by many countries due to far-reaching benefits encompassing the entire arena of science and technology. The field of defence is likely to profit immensely by nanotechnology-enabled applications.

Impact of the Recommendations of the Standing Committee on Defence (14th Lok Sabha) on the Defence Budget

In the run-up to the voting on the budget, detailed demands for grant(DDGs) presented by various ministries to the Parliament are examinedby the departmentally-related standing committees. As Parliamentcannot possibly examine more than 100 DDGs presented to it everyyear, these committees are required to examine them in detail and reportback to the Parliament. One such committee is the Standing Committeeon Defence.

India at Risk by Jaswant Singh

The book covers reflections of a soldier-turned-politician on the security challenges faced by India since her independence. The author has covered major events like the 1947–48 Kashmir War, the 1962 India–China War and the 1965 Indo-Pak War (the two operations in which he participated), besides the 1971 War for Liberation of Bangladesh and other events till the 1990s, based on research material.

Energy and Security in South Asia: Cooperation or Conflict? by Charles K. Ebinger

South Asia, with its legacy of suspicion, mistrust, ethnic sectarianism, and political parochialism would have fallen off the global map had it not been for its large and growing populations. Its people are poor largely because they do not have access to commercial energy. This is, perhaps, the greatest challenge that governments of the region face.

Indian Perceptions of China’s Maritime Silk Road Idea

The Maritime Silk Road (MSR) idea is part of this wider attempt by China to construct multiple lines of communication to its economic heartland in eastern China since the early 2000s. The underlying aim of such a geostrategy is to also develop inner Chinese provinces and shape China’s regional periphery by exercising economic, political and cultural Influence.

Insurgency in North-East India: External Dynamics

State and non-state elements in India’s neighbourhood have been supporting insurgency in the North-East to weaken the Indian state. In the 1960s and 1970s, insurgents from the region, particularly the Naga rebels, had received moral and material support from China. Moreover, elements in Pakistan and Bangladesh too have been aiding North-East Indian insurgents from time to time.

Embedding India in Asia: Reaffirming the Indo-Pacific Concept

The emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a new geopolitical frame of reference is embedded in the growing strategic importance of the maritime domain and the rise of states that have demonstrated the ability to ‘transcend’ their respective subregions. However, the Indo-Pacific remains a concept in its infancy, as evidenced by the fact that it continues to compete with alternative conceptions of regional space in Asia.

Pakistan the Garrison State: Origins, Evolution, Consequences 1947–2011 by Ishtiaq Ahmed

Pakistan has had a distinctive and chequered trajectory since its creation in August 1947, following the partition of British India, and was conceived on the basis of the contested two-nation theory. The latter formulation, championed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, averred that the Muslims of the subcontinent needed their own state and against aback drop of cynical realpolitik considerations and venal politics, the new state was born in the womb of intense Hindu–Muslim communal violence.

Statecraft and Intelligence Analysis in the Kautilya-Arthashastra

In the Kautilya-Arthashastra, espionage and other ‘operational’ activities of the secret service—notably ‘active measures’ and ‘covert action’—are addressed often and in detail. In contrast, Kautilya seems to say very little about intelligence analysis, assessment and estimates which provide the basis of strategic planning and grand strategy—and arekey components of statecraft. However, the central proposition of this article is that ‘ideas’ (or meanings) underlying these modern intelligence terms are very much present in the Arthashastra.