IDR Blog
NATO Alliance Regains Relevance in New Global Geopolitics
Global Geopolitics in 2017 are fast acquiring the contours of the initial years of the cold war when both the former Soviet Union (now Russia) and China were geopolitically aligned to challenge the ‘New World Order’ that emerged in post-World War II era. The post-1945 ‘New World Order’ was characterised by the overwhelming global...
Chinese Dogs to Patrol Lhasa
Police dogs will now patrol the streets of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital; it was announced yesterday. It is a first. For the first time on February 16, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) used dogs for patrolling the streets of Lhasa. According to China News Network, the dogs will “enhance the actual capacity and level of...
Global Balance of Power 2017 weighted heavily against China-Russia Nexus
Global balance of power 2017 is weighted heavily against perceived combined strategic weight of the China-Russia nexus as the history of 20th Century World Wars would indicate that Hitlerian impulses do not triumph against democracies coalescing against them. Democracies have long patience and forbearance in tolerating the strategic...
HAL’s Gamble – Will the “Advanced Hawk” break into the Export Market?
On 5 February 2017, a version of the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) was unveiled. The aptly-named “Advanced Hawk” is a joint-venture between BAE Systems and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It has been developed using internal funds on an equal risk basis and offers significant enhancement of the capabilities of the basic Hawk...
10 Questions the Standing Committee on Defence needs to ask MoD
Restructuring of the demands for grant of various ministries, including the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last year, and further tinkering with the MoD’s demands this year is inexplicable, to say the least. These changes neither present “a holistic picture of budgetary allocations” nor facilitate “effective expenditure monitoring”. Such...