India in Afghanistan: Engagement without Strategy
India needs to engage countries in the region to ensure that the transition process in Afghanistan does not threaten regional stability.
- Smruti S. Pattanaik
- January 28, 2011
India needs to engage countries in the region to ensure that the transition process in Afghanistan does not threaten regional stability.
In the absence of reforms in several areas, DPP-2011 may not be able to achieve its stated objectives of expeditious procurement and greater involvement of domestic industry in defence production.
The changing security environment calls for re-fashioning the use of hard power, which may have to be managed differently in the future.
This article is an exploration of the effectiveness of defence cooperation as a means of preventive diplomacy. The paper begins by suggesting that both defence cooperation and preventive diplomacy are concepts rooted in cooperative security. For the purposes of this paper, cooperative security is understood as an overarching concept that comprises alliances, collective security and preventive action. The fundamental claim of the article is that defence cooperation has more to offer than its own immediate benefits.
Political, economic and strategic factors in the post-Cold War period call for expanded co-operation between India and Indonesia.
Like in the space arena, India has the capability to offer its expertise to other countries in the field of nuclear power and non-nuclear applications.
The cultural linkages between India and Indonesia have to be leveraged, as a foreign policy tool, to take India-Indonesia relations to the next level.
This paper examines the human issues in the entire system that could make the military more effective recognising the military as a sub-system within the larger system, which is created to address the aims of that very system. It asserts that there is no requirement to institute committees or make any more laws to address the human element issues relating to military effectiveness. The existing politico-legal system being adequate, there is no need for ‘novel’ or ‘creative’ solutions but only the will to effectively and ruthlessly apply them.
A shift in strategic thinking over the past two decades has now led to India being poised between the strategic doctrines of offensive and defensive realism.
This paper provides conceptual and practical aspects of military diplomacy. It examines India’s recent efforts in enhancing its military diplomacy vis-àvis Chinese military diplomacy conundrum in Asia, especially in South and Southeast Asia. It points out that India’s inability to evince trust and goodwill with its neighbours has led to most of them preferring to employ military diplomacy with China as an India-specific countervailing factor. It argues that India’s military diplomacy is yet to catch up with its rising power status.