Strategic Analysis

All Roads Lead to North: Nepal’s Turn to China

Amish Raj Mulmi’s All Roads Lead to North vividly and eloquently captures the growing Chinese inroads into Nepal. Growing Chinese influence is visible not just in the northern-most border villages and transit checkposts of the Sino-Nepalese border at Tatopani, Rasuwagadhi or Humala in the rugged Himalayas, but also in the palace, parliament and the lives of people on the streets of Kathmandu. The author has diligently and skilfully recorded this enormous yet invisible process in its minutest detail, exposing how it is exerting pressure on the tranquillity of Nepali life.

Japan’s Security Reforms under Abe Shinzo: Setting the Stage for Proactivism in the Indo-Pacific?

As the longest-serving Prime Minister so far, Abe Shinzo will be remembered for the unprecedented shifts he brought about in Japan’s security policies, which will most likely have a lasting impact. From creating new institutions to fundamental changes in decision-making and from constructing a new framework for defense strategy and acquisition of offensive military capabilities to deftly managing the alliance with the US, Abe has left an indelible mark. He also came up with the Indo-Pacific construct and the Quad, which have become the key facets of regional security.

Cyber Technological Paradigms and Threat Landscape in India

In a discipline struggling to define even fundamental concepts like cyberspace and cyber threats, Ramnath Reghunadhan’s Cyber Technological Paradigms and Threat Landscape in India is a remarkable work to make sense of India’s efforts and challenges in cyberspace. The book by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras scholar is explanatory in nature and provides rich, collated, and specific information for cyber researchers working on India’s cyber policy.

US-China Strategic Competition and Converging Middle Power Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

The 21st century’s central economic nexus will be centred on the Indo-Pacific region. Simultaneously, the intensifying US-China competition in the Indo-Pacific is deepening. Regional middle powers must negotiate this competition to ensure their interests remain intact. This article applies a realist framework to analyse the strategic alignment of Australia, Japan, and India in response to the great power competition. It examines the strategy each middle power is pursuing to protect their interests and the motivations behind their approaches.

China and South Asia: Changing Regional Dynamics, Development and Power Play

China and South Asia is a collection of essays on Chinese foreign policy in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region. It covers China’s diplomatic, political, economic, social, and cultural interactions with the South Asian states, the regional balance of power and power asymmetries, and cooperation, competition and conflicts in the region. China’s rise as an economic power has led to increasing interactions in infrastructure development and connectivity as well as trade and investments with the regional countries.

The Shining Legacy of Shinzo Abe

It is with deep anguish that I write to express my heartfelt sorrow on the tragic and untimely passing away of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The cruel hand of an assassin has snatched him away from us, leaving a huge void in the Japanese political firmament as well as on the international stage.

Salafism and Political Order in Africa

In recent decades, Africa has emerged as one of the epicentres of jihadi terrorist groups. Scholars, analysts and policymakers have sought to unravel the factors underlying the presence, growth and spread of these groups. They have raised concerns about the spread of Salafi-jihadism, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute

Maroof Raza’s new book Contested Lands: India, China, and the Boundary Dispute documents the evolution of India’s boundary with China, an issue that predates independence and annexation of Tibet. The key question that has metamorphosed into the dispute with China is the differing interpretation on both sides. The genesis of the current dispute lies in the interpretative differences between the British, the Tibetans and the Chinese on the three sets of lines drawn by the British: (a) Johnson Line in 1865, (b) Johnson-Ardgah Line in 1897, and (c) McCartney MacDonald Line in 1899.

Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties

The book Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties by Ranjit Rae, a former Indian Ambassador to Nepal (September 2013 to February 2017), is timely, given that bilateral relations have been marred by numerous controversies in the recent past. Nepal has sent two diplomatic notes—September 2021 and November 2019—to India in the last few years. Accusations in Nepal of India meddling in its internal affairs during the 2021 constitutional crisis, have further vitiated the atmosphere.

The Chinese Shadow on India’s Eastward Engagement: The Energy Security Dimension

Securing energy supplies is vital for India, the world’s second most populous country, home to 1.38 billion people having a median age of 28.1 and where some seven million youth enter the workforce every year.

Any discussion about India’s energy security would have to factor in China, the world’s most populous country. Its 1.41 billion people have a median age of 37.4 and about nine million youth were expected to enter China’s workforce in 2021.