The politics of coalition has posed new challenges to India’s foreign policy. This problem becomes particularly evident in India’s neighbourhood, which inevitably becomes intertwined with domestic politics. The rise of regional political parties and their role as coalition partners makes it more difficult for the union government to ignore provincial sentiments. Competitive politics featuring both national and regional political parties provides primacy to local interest as this is linked to the vote bank politics.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

Eminent nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy and his co-authors in the seminal volume Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out have defied the age-old perspective that nuclear weapons are the ultimate armaments of security. While courting controversy, the authors have presented nuclear issues considered taboo and yet critical. This is a bold attempt by a group of eminent scientists who ‘reject nuclear patriotism’ (p. xxii) and have delved into issues of ‘nuclear weapons, war, strategy and politics’ (p.

• Reshmi Kazi |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

More than 16 years have passed since the government and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah faction, or NSCN(IM))

• Thangkhanlal Ngaihte |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

Scholars studying China are quite familiar with themes like national humiliation, nationalism as a new source of regime legitimacy vis-à-vis communism, and China’s anti-US and anti-Japan polemic. Zheng Wang’s book Never Forget National Humiliation captures the interrelated nature of these themes in a skilful manner and is a valuable addition to the study of Chinese nationalism.

• Prashant Kumar Singh |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

Since June 2013, there has been a spate of activity on the Tibet controversy. Sparking it off was the interview of Professor Jin Wei1 from the Central Party School in Asian Weekly2 on June 6, entitled ‘Reopen Talks and Resolve Tibetan Issues’, in which she advocated engaging the Dalai Lama rather than demonising him. Soon after, the International Campaign of Tibet reported that China had lifted the 17-year ban on the display of Dalai Lama portraits in Sichuan and Qinghai.

• Dolma Tsering |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

In the post-colonial era, religion has emerged as a powerful political force in South Asia. The key question that emerges is: how and why did religion become this potent political ideology in the South Asian region? Aiming to find the answer to this question, Ali Riaz, along with other scholars from the region—namely Abdulkader Sinno, Amalendu Misra, Subho Basu, Farhat Haq and A.R.M. Imtiyaz—offers a comprehensive analysis of the interaction between religion and politics in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

• Md. Mizanur Rahman |
• January 2014 |
• Strategic Analysis

The G8, Pakistan and the Pacific island states have pushed for a discussion in the United Nations (UN) Security Council on the security dimensions of climate change. As the issue gains momentum at the global and regional levels, India as an emerging power that continues to use energy and other natural resources, at the cost of stressing other countries, particularly its neighbours, will need to formulate a response.

• Mukul Sanwal |
• November 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis

On 3 May 2013, Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard released the Defence White Paper (DWP) 2013, making it the sixth White Paper on defence in the history of Australia, and the third since 2000. The last Defence White Paper, entitled Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, was released in 2009 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was serving his first term.

• Rahul Mishra |
• November 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Arctic is beginning to test the stage-managed optics of China and Russia’s ‘strategic partnership’. Friction was most recently on display after the Arctic Council’s May 2013 decision to confer permanent observer status on Beijing. The Chinese media celebrated the move as an affirmation of the nation’s ‘legitimate rights’ in Arctic affairs.1 Russian officials were much less enthusiastic.

• Lincoln E. Flake |
• November 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis

On 11 May 1998, two events took place:

(1)India carried out nuclear tests; and
(2)India declared itself to be a state with nuclear weapons.1

• Jasjit Singh |
• November 2013 |
• Strategic Analysis