Strategic Analysis

How will India Respond to Civil War in Pakistan?

In 1971, India intervened militarily on behalf of Bengalis in the civil war in East Pakistan, dividing the country into two. The prospect of another civil war in Pakistan pitting radical Islamists against the secular but authoritarian military raises questions about the possibility, timing, objective, and nature of another Indian intervention.

Future of Golden BRICS

With the successful holding of the fifth summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) in Durban during March 26–27, 2013, this influential group of emerging economies completed its first important phase of genesis and evolution. The idea was floated in 2001 as an ‘acronym’ created by an investment banker of Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neil who believed that the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, China and India would be the single greatest game changers in coming times.

President Obama’s New National Security Team

United States President Barack Obama's new national security team for his second term in office was finally put in place at the end of February. It is an impressive team of men who share Obama's worldview and seem likely to accept the White House lead preferred by this president. The one woman, Susan Rice, added to the team as National Security Adviser in May reinforces the public image of foreign policy shaped by Obama.

Fear, Interest and Honour: The Thucydidean Trinity and India’s Asia Policy

Nearly 2,500 years ago the Greek historian Thucydides noted that the foreign policy of Athens was driven by fear, interest and honour.

The International Ambitions of Mao and Nehru: National Efficacy Beliefs and the Making of Foreign Policy by Andrew Bingham Kennedy

India and China represented two of the most dynamic anomalies within the international system during the height of the Cold War era in the 1950s. Both states were considered thus, as the world, particularly Western nations, looked upon their prospective futures with varying degrees of scepticism.

Twenty-First Century Sea Power: Cooperation and Conflict at Sea by Peter Dutton, Robert S. Ross and Oystein Tunsjo (eds.)

The volume under review is part of the CASS Series on Naval Policy and History edited by the acclaimed maritime affairs expert Professor Geoffrey Till, and is also the 50th book in the series. Maritime and naval scholarship is a niche area in security and strategic studies and the Cass series is a welcome initiative to address the prevailing sea-blindness and related ignorance in the policy-making circles of the world.

Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE by K.M. de Silva

The story of post-colonial Sri Lanka is, in large part, the story of how two groups have interlaced and, in the process, engaged in a 30-year war which saw its end in 2009. In Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE, K.M. de Silva addresses the history of ethnic tension in Sri Lanka, and presents a case study of the emergence, maturation and eventual collapse of the terrorist organisation the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Return of a King by William Dalrymple

Imperialism never gives on its own will. The all-season historian, William Dalrymple, echoes this message throughout Return of a King. In comparison to his unwavering research on India, which is submerged in the thickness of the complex historiography, this new book is a rattling good read. The theme of the book gives the average reader a valid reason to come across the parts of ‘research and reference’, which are supported by historical facts rather than facts interwoven with fiction.

India: A Sacred Geography by Diana L. Eck : Harmony, Random House, New York, 2012, 559 pp., Rs 599, ISBN 978-0-385-34708-2

India: A Sacred Geography by Diana L. Eck is an important contribution to the literature on the processes that have contributed to imagining India long before the age of the nation state. Eck traces the ‘prehistory’ of the idea of India, locating it in the geographical nature of Hindu spiritual practice and pilgrimage.

Partition of History in Textbooks in Pakistan: Implications of Selective Memory and Forgetting

This article seeks to study the post-partition and especially post-1971 experimentation with history writing in Pakistan and focuses on how the revisiting of the partition has led to a reinvention of history by the selective contraction, misinterpretation and even omission of certain periods believed to be detrimental to the process of nation building in Pakistan. The article seeks to selectively apply the Hegelian approach and make a case for a common history, which it is hoped will facilitate better relations and greater mutual understanding between the nations of the sub-continent.