Strategic Analysis

Pakistan’s Pashtun Challenge: Moving from Confrontation to Integration

The Pashtun populations of Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been a source of bilateral contention, with each government inciting Pashtun tribals against the other. Now that the majority of Pashtuns live in Pakistan, Islamabad is using its Pashtun connections to project influence into Afghanistan. As a result, both Afghanistan and Pakistan are threatened by runaway Pashtun militancy. Peace and stability in both countries will be impossible until political reforms have been implemented in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.

India amidst Increased Activity in the Security Council: A Few Observations

Article 1 of the United Nations Charter declares the maintenance of international peace and security to be the primary function of the United Nations. This makes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) the most important organ of the whole establishment. All other functions and engagements of the United Nations are in support of the primary cause.

Asymmetric Warfare: A View from India

Coined a few years ago, ‘asymmetric warfare’ is an umbrella term that includes insurgent and terrorist campaigns that Western militaries were forced to contend with in the course of external interventions. Asymmetric wars for Western countries are wars of choice, not wars of necessity.

Should India ‘Be East’ or Be Eurasian?

The recent fad among Western security commentaries is to portray India as a natural member of East Asian political life.

Changing Media, Changing China by Susan L. Shirk (ed.)

The opening up of the Chinese economy in 1978 was a watershed event in Chinese history. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to open up certain sections of the economy in order to maintain good economic growth.

China’s Rising Global Profile: The Great Power Tradition by Harsh V. Pant

China's global presence is indisputable, yet for most of the Cold War, China shied away from an international role. However, as China's economic profile has risen, so too has its interest in engaging with regions further afield.

Out of the Frame: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel by Ilan Pappe

Ilan Pappe's Out of the Frame is a personal narrative about Jewish society in Israel and an intellectual commentary by a historian on the state of Israel.

Negotiating for India (Lessons of Diplomacy) by Jagat Mehta

Jagat Mehta joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in March 1947 before India became independent. In 1976, at the age of 53, he became India's first foreign secretary without an Indian civil service background. He retired in 1979. In the present book, the author discusses six negotiating assignments that he handled during his diplomatic career, pertaining to Bhutan, China, Uganda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The book is a must read for those interested in India's diplomacy and diplomatic practices of the past.

Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan, Harper Collins

MJ. Akbar brings his English literature background, writing skills and experience as a journalist with a notable body of work behind him to bear on a topic that has been and remains central to the story of the subcontinent—the past and future of Pakistan. That he prefaces his title with tinderbox reveals his pessimism regarding Pakistan's future. For him, Pakistan can plausibly be characterised as a ‘toxic jelly’.

Emerging Space Powers by Brian Harvey, Henk Smid and Theo Pirard

Within the ever expanding genre of conflict and security-related literature, there is a less investigated field that pertains to futuristic technologies and the harnessing of science for the purposes of mass destruction and targeted warfare. This is the arena of space, the battlefield of major powers and the arena for power expansion into the extra-terrestrial.