Articles By Maj Gen SB Asthana
Decoding Chinese Strategic Intent in Prolonged Standoff at LAC
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Sep , 2020
Key Points Military posturing and muscle flexing in Ladakh continues with talks, as both sides refuse to blink first. PLA’s centre of gravity of military operations is Eastern Ladakh and...
Indo-Iran Engagements: Did India pick up Right Choices?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 23 Jul , 2020
Key Points China-Iran strategic partnership resulting in many deals adding to $400bn alters strategic balance in Middle East (West Asia) in favor of China. India’s unhindered engagement with...
Uniting Taiwan by Force: Likely to be a Strategic Blunder
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Jun , 2020
In a survey carried out from April 21 to May 28 of this year in Taiwan, 75.3 percent people in Taiwan consider themselves “Taiwanese,” 20 percent selected both, and only 4.7 percent think of...
COVID-19: a new Dimension in an ‘Undeclared Third World War’!!
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 30 Apr , 2020
The outbreak of COVID-19 has demonstrated the humongous damage potential of a virus (possibly synthesised in a laboratory!?) as a weapon of mass destruction. It has added a new dimension to alter...
Limping from a Failing BRI to Health Silk Route
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 03 Apr , 2020
The beginning of 2020 brought a wild card entry into global strategic equations in the form of Novel Coronavirus (which causes the disease officially named by WHO as COVID-19), with Wuhan being...
US-Taliban Peace Deal: Is it a Compromise?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 03 Mar , 2020
A long-awaited historic US- Taliban Peace Deal stands signed byU.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar inking it on February 29, 2020. All stake holders...
Is China-Myanmar Economic Corridor turning out to be another CPEC for India?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Jan , 2020
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Myanmar on January 18, 2020 at a time when it was struggling global criticism over its treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. It is learnt that the two...
Can Quad be Effective against Incremental Encroachment of China in...
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 26 Dec , 2019
• Chinese adventurism in South China Sea and expeditionary design in Indo-Pacific is a global concern. • Quad being looked at as one of the instruments for ensuring free and open, rule-based...
Baghdadi Dead : What it means for Terrorism in West and South Asia?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Nov , 2019
President Trump’s announcement that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State(IS) commander, died during a US military operation in Syria, later confirmed by ISIS itself, was a welcome news for...
Combating Information Warfare of Adversaries Post Abrogation of Article 370
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 30 Aug , 2019
• Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir revoked on August 06, 2019, making J&K and Ladakh two separate Union Territories, is history. • Pakistan politically rattled, and in reckless irrational...
Article 370 Revoked in J&K rattles some Countries: Should India be Concerned?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Aug , 2019
The Indian Government revoked Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, on August 06, 2019, making J&K and Ladakh two separate Union Territories. Pakistan rattled taking reckless actions, China...
Can Endstate of US-Iran Clash be better than JCPoA, 2015?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 Jun , 2019
President Trump signed an executive order on 24 June, imposing additional economic sanctions on Iran. Apparently it’s in retaliation to shooting down of the US Drone by Iran over its airspace...
IS Strikes South Asia: Are India and China Next?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Courtesy: www.col.hariharan.info/ | Date: 21 May , 2019
After the IS caliphate was decimated, USA and multinational forces including some groups like Kurds supporting them announced victory over Daesh. It was however well anticipated that despite the...
Peace in Afghanistan: Can US Recipe be cherished in Afghanistan ever?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 26 Apr , 2019
After several rounds of US Taliban Peace Talks in Doha, the reluctantly agreed upon ‘so-called intra-Afghan dialogue’ scheduled on April 19, 2019 was abruptly cancelled on April 18 amid...
China Chooses to Stand with Terrorists for the Fourth Time
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 14 Mar , 2019
It’s not a big surprise for any strategist that China has blocked the bid to have Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated a global terrorist for the fourth time. China has repeated the...
‘Out of box options’ needed to deal with Pakistan’s Proxy War, post...
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Mar , 2019
Backdrop India has suffered enough of Proxy War since last 30 years, which continues in Imran’s ‘Naya Pakistan’ with same vigor as hitherto fore. The surgical strikes launched in 2016 post...
Trump-Kim Summit II – Is Resolution Really Possible?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 Feb , 2019
While South Korea has every reason to be hopeful about the upcoming summit of President Trump with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi scheduled for February 27 and 28th this year, looking...
Decoding Pentagon Report on China January 2019
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 18 Jan , 2019
Amidst sequential escalation of US-China ‘Heated cold war’, Pentagon has released a new report on 16 January 2019, airing US concerns about China’s growing military capability highlighting a...
How Secure will India be in 2019?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Jan , 2019
Although one year is too short a period for trending a serious subject like National Security, nevertheless speculating the immediate trends may be a useful exercise under the existing realities,...
Is Strategic Balancing a ‘New Normal’ in Interlinked World?
By: Maj Gen SB Asthana | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 05 Dec , 2018
The G-20 Summit 2018 will be remembered for extra-ordinary large number of bilateral and trilateral meetings, which seem to be even more significant than the main purpose of the meet. There are...