IDR Blog
Pakistan: More on the Indus Water Treaty
Media reports indicate that India has agreed to attend the next session of Indus Water Commission on March 20-21 2017 to be held at Lahore. This will be the 113th session of the Commission and the meeting is being held in Pakistan this time as mandated in the Treaty. The Indian media has started reading too much into the meeting and the...
Implications of Japan's First Military Communication Satellite Kirameki-2
East Asia is marked by numerous volatile security issues: struggle over unresolved territories; disputed sea and sea lanes; North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes; piracy and insurgencies; and growing militarization of most of the countries in the region. Japan’s leaders have decided on a more proactive security stance.[i] North...
Gullible Innocents, or willing Propagandists?
The publication of pro-China articles by the India media raises two questions: First, why are Indian journalists propagating stories planted by Beijing? Second, can the Chinese be trusted even after they have signed a deal? In 2003, the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Communist Party of China approved a ‘guiding conceptual...
Hybrid Warfare and the New Normal: Criteria and Retaliatory Threshold
As Russian involvement and covert interference arguably increases in US and European democratic processes, and with the ever-increasing chances of open conflict in Eastern Europe, the focus on the concept of “Hybrid War” is back in discussion. But as technology blurs the line it is easy to conflate what constitutes hybrid war, and what is just...
Pakistan's Dangerous Game Plan - with a Little Chinese Help
Since the ghastly terrorist bombing of the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, Sindh, that killed some 83 Sufi Muslims and injured over 250 on February 16, the Pakistan Army claims to have killed 100 terrorists in 24 hours in a countrywide crackdown. At this pace they should solve the problem of terrorism in Pakistan in no time — the same...