Pakistan

Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War, by C. Christine Fair, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 343, £27.99

Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan Lost the Great South Asian War, by Myra MacDonald, London: Hurst & Co., 2017, pp. 328, £25.00‘

• Abhay Kumar Singh
• October 2017
• Journal of Defence Studies

The idea of abolishing FATA as a distinct administrative entity and merging it with KP led to a country-wide debate, with some commentators pointing to the futility of the merger and others advocating its early implementation in the interest of peace and stability in the region.

• Zainab Akhter
• August 29, 2017
• Backgrounder

The revival of Jaish indicates that Pakistan will continue to utilise terrorism as an instrument to advance its geo-strategic agenda in South Asia.

• Raj Verma
• May 15, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Nuclearisation of the Indian subcontinent limits conventional military options available to India for punishing Pakistan’s employment of terrorism as a tool of state policy. While India has rightly balanced the use of diplomatic and limited military means over a period of time, even as these remain relevant, the option of economic sanctions deserves deeper analysis for its efficacy and impact. Economic measures can be undertaken both in the form of direct and indirect actions against a target country, individual or an organisation with varied degrees of impact.

• Vivek Chadha
• April 2017
• Journal of Defence Studies

Will the Pakistani civilian leadership cease to placate the Islamist forces for their own electoral gain? Will the Army rein in the jihadis it has been using to retain “strategic depth” in Afghanistan?

• Nazir Ahmad Mir
• March 17, 2017
• IDSA Comments

There is no documentary evidence to substantiate the Pakistani claim that Pakistan had entered into any voluntary safeguards agreement with the IAEA in respect of KANUPP.

• G. Balachandran
• June 21, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The military and scientific leadership of Pakistan has given clear signals that tactical nuclear weapons have a vital role in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons policy. Developed to lower Pakistan’s nuclear threshold, these weapons may further deter India from launching a conventional strike to punish Pakistan for its sub-conventional war against India. This has led to a debate on the possible doctrinal responses that India could adopt to counter Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons.

• Arka Biswas
• November 2015
• Strategic Analysis

Pakistani planners are increasingly prone to recognize the many links between water, food, and energy security. The construction of new large dams is seen by many as a concrete measure to achieve resource security for Pakistani for a future marked by climactic variability and unpredictability. This article explores the geopolitical and political geographic implications of Pakistan’s strategic vision of building dams as a way to prepare for climate change.

• Majed Akhter
• November 2015
• Strategic Analysis

A growing Sino-Russian-Pakistani maritime nexus in the IOR poses a challenge to India’s influence in the Indian Ocean and heralds a potential change in the Asian balance of maritime power.

• Abhijit Singh
• August 27, 2015
• IDSA Comments

ADB’s yet another deferment of the decision on funding the DBD is a serious setback to Pakistan’s relentless efforts to obtain funds for constructing this mega hydro-power project on River Indus.

• Priyanka Singh
• March 03, 2015
• IDSA Comments