Articles By Claude Arpi

Chinese incursions, now and then

Chinese incursions, now and then

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 28 Jan , 2011

Chinese incursions have been making headlines in the Indian media. Unfortunately, the Indian leadership prefers to mitigate the facts, to not “hurt feelings of the Chinese” or “make things...

More

China's core interests

China's core interests

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 24 Jan , 2011

Have you heard of ‘Core Interests’? No, it has nothing to do with ‘organising’ the CWG, IPL auctions, mining in tribal areas or OBC vote banks, though it is true that in India ‘core’...

More

Which direction for China in 2011?

Which direction for China in 2011?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 14 Jan , 2011

Which direction will the Superpower that is China take in 2011? An answer to this question, lies in the Chinese press, in particular in the analyses/comments published in China during the last...

More

China: Harmony or chaos?

China: Harmony or chaos?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011

China suffers from a superiority complex. This is not new. Genetically, it must have been there for ages, but in recent years due to the rapid economic development, the tremendous advances in the...

More

China dictates development on Indian territory

China dictates development on Indian territory

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Jan , 2011

As reported several times on Claude Arpi blog, during the past months, the Chinese have been constructing mega infrastructure projects (roads, airports, five-star hotels) on their side of the...

More

The end of Shangrila

The end of Shangrila

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 31 Dec , 2010

As the year comes to a close, one could ask: What was the most depressing news during 2010? There were so many contenders for this description — from the shoddy preparations for the...

More

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-III

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-III

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 24 Dec , 2010

The second part of the speech is consecrated to disarmament. It is probably the most detailed account by a French President When international security improves, France draws the consequences....

More

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-II

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-II

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 23 Dec , 2010

People are ‘reproducible’ the Great Helmsman is said to have stated. That day, Nehru understood that India and China were not brothers, though Mao was at his charming best, when Nehru left...

More

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-I

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-I

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 22 Dec , 2010

The question of nuclear disarmament has always given rise to diverse, if not opposite reactions. Commentators have described the positions of different nations (and sometimes within the same...

More

Chinese Incursions and India's Flawed Response

Chinese Incursions and India's Flawed Response

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 16 Dec , 2010

Chinese incursions are making headlines in the Indian Press. It is good. Not because the Chinese persist in trespassing into Indian territory, but because the media bring some light onto such...

More

Tibetan Villagers 'relocated' by dam construction

Tibetan Villagers 'relocated' by dam construction

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Dec , 2010

Earlier, I had mentioned that the new dam built by the Chinese near Lhasa.  More news on this front: it seems now that some 4000 farmers will have to be ‘relocated’.  What is strange in...

More

WikiLeaks and Indian secrets

WikiLeaks and Indian secrets

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 07 Dec , 2010

We live in the WikiLeaks era when no official document is considered too secret to be put out in the public domain by whistleblowers. It’s only a matter of time before India’s archive of...

More

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-III

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-III

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 05 Dec , 2010

Obstacles to Indo-French Relations: At the outset, it is necessary to point out that today no major political differences darken the sky between Paris and Delhi except, of course, the unexpected...

More

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-II

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-II

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 04 Dec , 2010

Phase 2: 1971-1990: The Office of the Historian of the US State Department which has recently released the declassified documents of the Nixon Administration terms the policy of the US President...

More

An Analysis of China's White Papers on Defense

An Analysis of China's White Papers on Defense

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.2 Apr-Jun 2009 | Date: 28 Nov , 2010

Have you ever heard of the term ‘Informationization’? The word is used 48 times in the new White Paper (WP) on Defense1 published by The Information Office of State Council of the People’s...

More

China: Friend or Foe?

China: Friend or Foe?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 22.4 Oct-Dec 2007 | Date: 24 Nov , 2010

Year 2008 will be a special year. It is a leap year and for the first time in modern history, China will organize the Olympic Games. One remembers that in ancient Greece, this was a time for...

More

Return of Jiang

Return of Jiang

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 23 Nov , 2010

China has the most opaque political system in the world. The only way to guess what is going on behind the walls of Zhongnanhai (residences-cum-offices of the top Chinese leadership) is to watch...

More

China : Is it enough to just watch?

China : Is it enough to just watch?

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Nov , 2010

Foreign Minister SM Krishna says he is ‘watchful on China projects near border’. According to newspapers’ reports: “India asserted that it keeps a ‘constant watch’ on all developments having a...

More

France pitches for India to join military operations overseas

France pitches for India to join military operations overseas

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 20 Oct , 2010

“I earnestly hope that the modernisation of India’s Mirage 2000 fleet will be executed by Dassault, Thales and MBDA.” Mr. Hervé Morin was born on 17 August 1961 in Pont-Audemer, Eure...

More

The African Talibans

The African Talibans

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 Oct , 2010

The visit to India of Mr. Jean-David Levitte, the ‘sherpa’ of President Sarkozy, during the second week of October was hardly noticed. Monsieur Levitte is a very powerful man. In France, each...

More