Strategic Analysis


Identity and Conflict: Perspectives from the Kashmir Valley

Based on interviews with a cross-section of people from the Kashmir Valley including aspirants of self-determination, academics, media persons, members of the civil society, and security forces this article argues that perceptions about identity are central to the conflict in Kashmir Valley. Having successfully stemmed the tide of armed conflict militarily, it is now crucial for the government to take cognizance of and address these issues in an appropriate manner as management of these perceptions will be critical to bringing enduring peace to the Kashmir Valley.

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Outlook for the Seventies: Strategic and Technological

So far the Chinese have carried out ten nuclear tests which include one underground test, one test of a nuclear-tipped missile and three thermo-nuclear tests. In other words, the Chinese are on a comprehensive weapons programme, which will give them thermo-nuclear warheads from the megaton range down to small yield nuclear weapons of a few kiloton range and even fractional kiloton range. They are now engaged in improving the compactness of their warheads.

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A Q Khan Release and Non-Proliferation

On February 6, 2009, the Pakistani judiciary acquitted Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan, the symbol of Pakistani involvement in clandestine nuclear commerce. Since 2004, he had been under house arrest after the proliferation network, linking several countries, including Pakistan, was uncovered. Though he has been put under ‘unspecified security measures’, yet the release of AQ Khan – dubbed by the United States State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid as a ‘serious proliferation risk’ – is considered to be a disturbing development for the non-proliferation regime.

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The Obama Administration’s Afghanistan–Pakistan Policy: In Need of an Urgent Rethink

If one needs to probe into the minds of what the Obama Administration is thinking in terms of its Afghanistan–Pakistan policy, the recently released Atlantic Council of the US report titled ‘Needed: A Comprehensive U.S. Policy Towards Pakistan’ offers important insights. It can be inferred from this report that President Obama's South Asia policy is going to revolve around Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the other actors in the region are relevant so long as they help the United States in its ‘war on terror’.

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