Strategic Analysis

Uzbekistan: The Key Pillar of India’s ‘Act North’ Engagement

India has redefined its engagement with Eurasia in the last few years. It has sought to re-energize ties with its extended neighbourhood based on its historical linkages, positive and benign image, and overlapping security and economic interests. In this context, ties with Uzbekistan remain a key pillar of India’s Eurasian calculus. Tashkent’s strategic location at the crossroads of Central Asia and abundant natural resources form the fulcrum around which the security of Central Asia revolves.

From Energy Security to Energy Dominance: US’ Blending of Politics and Economics

In the aftermath of the successful ‘America First’ or ‘Make America Great Again’ presidential election campaign, President Trump’s era inaugurated the realm of energy politics. It began with the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the lifting of the US export ban on crude oil. So far, it has been featured in setting aside President Obama’s climate change mitigation policy, which emphasized regulation, discouraged oil and gas development, and denounced the extensive exploitation of natural resources.

Vasileios Balafas , Efstathios T. Fakiolas
March 2020
Strategic Analysis

The Indian Military and Social Change

Over the years, the Indian Army has been engaged in two important roles: external defence and the maintenance of internal security. As the Army’s emphasis has shifted from the latter to the former its structure and organization has changed; for structure and strategic role are immutably interlinked. New equipment has made the army more mobile, it is stationed primarily in forward positions, and recruitment is no longer based upon political loyalty.

In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba

The basic goal of states in an anarchical international system is survival. One of the best ways to ensure survival is to maximize security through self-help. States engage in self-help in a panoply of ways, like military modernization and arms build-ups. Pakistan’s collaboration with the menagerie of non-state actors can be seen as a self-help strategy for countering a conventionally superior India, while at the same time pursuing vital domestic and foreign security objectives.

Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undertaken its most elaborate reforms since the past 30 years under President Xi Jinping. The current PLA restructuring since 2016 aligns with China’s broader regional and global interests. President Xi has set 2020 as the deadline for the PLA to achieve mechanization, 2035 for informatisation and 2049 to make the PLA into a world-class army. Just a year before PLA’s first deadline, M. Taylor Fravel’s book Active Defense is a timely intervention to understand China’s changing military approaches and strategies.

By More than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia-Pacific since 1783

In the ascription of causality in international relations (IR), there is either deliberate action or historical contingency. Historical contingency is an element that cannot be accounted for; however, deliberate action is accounted for and ascribed to planning or strategy. Even with strategically planned deliberate action, there is an element of uncertainty of whether the intended effect will be achieved or not. This is due to intended effects of strategy being mediated by situational variables and contingencies. These characteristics form the underlying implicit nature of strategy.

Kautilya and Non-Western IR theory

Kautilya’s Arthashastra, after its rediscovery in 1905, became an important reference point for the nationalist discourse in India. The treatise, with its foundational roots in the third-century BCE, helped the nationalists discover self-esteem and confidence. It was instrumental in breaking the mental barriers forged by the colonialist discourse that instilled an intellectual and political inferiority among Indians. Arthashastra, though set in different time and socio-political context, became a proof of India’s glorious but forgotten tradition of political and economic thought.

Pakistan’s US $ 6 Billion EFF Arrangement with IMF

Over the past year i.e. 2018–2019, Pakistan has been facing challenging macro-economic conditions that include a ballooning fiscal imbalance and a weak external position with gross reserves at $8 billion, equal to 1.7 months of imports. On June 19, 2019, Reza Baqir, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan wrote to the Managing Director of the IMF, seeking assistance under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), on grounds that Pakistan’s international reserves had touched critically low levels with a large balance of payments gap, in an environment of limited market access.

A Comparison of Defence Sector Innovation Ecosystems in China and India

The defence sector in all major countries has historically been a source of new technologies and innovation. As China and India grow in stature, the strengths of their defence sector ecosystems and the ability to innovate become areas of focus for policymakers. Since defence deals with the security of a nation, all defence ecosystems have some element of government leadership, direction and ownership. Against this must be balanced the need to ensure efficiencies and competitive capabilities, which requires entrepreneurship, private sector companies and the market mechanism.

India in Vietnam’s Foreign Policy

The upgrading of Vietnam–India relations from partnership (2003) to strategic partnership (2007) and a comprehensive strategic partnership (2016) is not merely the result of India’s Look/Act East Policy. It also reflects Vietnam’s high appreciation of the Indian factor in its foreign policy since the Southeast Asian country promoted multilateralism and diversification in its international relations.