Strategic Analysis

The Asian Balance of Power in the Seventies: An Indian View

There is general agreement among those concerned with international relations and strategy that for the next fifteen years Asia is more likely to be an area of tension and conflict involving major powers than any other part of the world, now that detente has stabilised the situation in Europe. There is further agreement that China and growing nationalism among the Asian societies will be the foci around which tension and conflict are likely to build up.

India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation? by Stanley Wolpert University of California Press, 2010

Beginning with partition of the subcontinent in 1947, this book by renowned scholar Stanley Wolpert provides an account of one of the oldest political crisis/conflicts in the world. He simplifies 63 years of complex history, tracing the relationship between the two antagonists. This book is an outcome of his extensive work on South Asia over the last 60 years. In this book, Wolpert explores historical roots of the conflict, assesses different phases of it and the attempts made to resolve it, before recommending potential solutions to it.

Mawlana Mawdudi and Political Islam: Authority and the Islamic State by Roy Jackson Routledge, New York, 2011, 202 pp.

The religious and political ideas of Sayyid Abdul A'la Mawdudi (Mawlana Mawdudi) provide the ideological current to groups contending for the supremacy of Islam (rather than Islamic Revivalism). Mawdudi's brand of political Islam has gained widespread acceptance in South and South East Asia as well as the Middle East. His influence on Hassan al-banna (better known as ‘Salafis’ and the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt), Palestinian scholar Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (believed to have taught the Islamic values to Osama bin-Laden) and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini bear testimony to it.

India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia by Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur Columbia University Press, New York, 2010, 152 pp., Rs 325, ISBN 0-2311-4374-5

India, Pakistan and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia is a strategic debate between the optimists and pessimists on whether the nuclearisation of South Asia has stabilised the subcontinent or whether proliferation has rendered it more dangerous. Authored by Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur, the book examines the question as to whether the decision to exercise the nuclear option by India and Pakistan was a prudent one: Did India's nuclear capability accord it a great power status? Did the Pokhran II tests of May 1998 make India more secure?

Interrogating International Relations: India’s Strategic Practice and the Return of History by Jayashree Vivekanandan Routledge, London/New York/New Delhi: 2011

Does India have a strategic culture? The conventional answer is ‘no’, especially since George Tanham said so. Jayashree Vivekanandan contests this view, the roots of which she traces to the ‘Orientalist’ construction of Indian culture.

First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India by B.G. Verghese Westland, 2010, 573 pp., Rs. 695, ISBN 9-7893-8028-3760

Verghese, B.G. has written several books in his multifaceted career, spanning over six decades. His latest work First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India is somewhat unique and is a summing up of his variegated experiences. It is a valuable addition to the body of work on India's modern ‘general history’ on which, according to the author, little work has been done (p. xii).

Children of Abraham at War: Clash of Messianic Militarisms, by Talmiz Ahmad Delhi, Aakar Books, 2010, 475 pp., Rs 1250, ISBN 978-93-5002-080-7

Talmiz Ahmad is an Indian Foreign Service officer who has seen extensive service in West Asia. It is apparent his long stint there gave him an opportunity to observe, learn and reflect. The book is an outcome. His thesis is that there has been considerable influence of historical and cultural factors in their interplay on the contemporary situation in West Asia, explained best by his choice of title for his book.

Ali Ahmed
September 2011
Strategic Analysis

The Evolving Politics of Taliban Reintegration and Reconciliation in Afghanistan

The subject assumes significance in view of the politics evolving around the idea of negotiating peace, especially with the Taliban, as the West plans to withdraw bulk of their troops by 2014. Though often regarded as flawed, ill-timed, regressive, wobbly, dangerous and unworkable, the idea has nevertheless come to dominate the discourse on the Afghan war. However, principal Afghan opposition forces and networks operating from Pakistan continue to publicly rebuff and mock at the government's initiative.

India and Iran’s Nuclear Issue: The Three Policy Determinants

Three broad policy determinants can be discerned in Indian reactions to the Iranian nuclear issue. These include: ‘strategic autonomy’ as it relates to Indian foreign policy decision making

China’s ‘Military Diplomacy’: Investigating PLA’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations

The central focus of this article is to understand the evolution of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's engagement with UN peacekeeping operations in the light of China's military diplomacy. The article underlines that the PLA works as a foreign policy instrument in UN peacekeeping operations and furthers China's foreign policy agenda in many ways.