Strategic Analysis

Changing Face of Turkey

Turkey is blessed with a favourable geography. It straddles Asia and Europe, is surrounded by sea on three sides, controls the only link to the Black Sea, and has moderate climatic conditions, abundant energy resources in its neighbourhood and a defensible terrain. It also has the civilisational and historical past, having ruled over large swathes of territory including North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Europe in the heyday of the Ottoman Empire.

The Islamist Impulse Haunting Pakistan

It is a truism to say that the elite in Pakistan has used Islam to perpetuate its hold on power ever since the state came into being in 1947. The judiciary in Pakistan has been the latest to emphasise its Islamist credentials to legitimise its rise as an important constituent of the influential ‘quartet’ that is ruling Pakistan today.

Socio-Economic Underpinning of Jihadism in Pakistan

The rise of the jihadist movement in Pakistan is driven primarily by ideological and religious factors. Decades of indoctrination of a virulent version of radical political Islam has motivated thousands of people—young and old—to take the path of violent jihad to capture political power, and through it, transform the society, economy and culture to bring about what they consider to be a pristine Islamic order.

Tasks before Indian Foreign Policy

India is contesting elections for the non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term, 2011–12. If elected, it will return to the Security Council after a gap of 18 years. During this long hiatus, the geopolitical environment in the world has changed dramatically. As a member of the UNSC, India will be called upon to deliberate over a host of new issues and threats to international security.

Review Essay

Katherine T. Harris (ed.), Geopolitics of Oil , Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2009, pp. 165, US$69, ISBN 978-1606928103

Peter Maass, Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil , Allen Lane, London, pp. 228, £20, ISBN 978-1846142468

Oil in China: Reserves, Production and Export Potential

The latest addition to the Chinese ‘enigma’ is its oil potential. There have been various accounts, of late, in influential journals and important documents attempting to unravel the mystery surrounding Chinese oil. As it happens, most of them have helped only to further deepen it.