IDR Blog
Limits of Practising Nuclear Brinksmanship
Thomas Schelling, a noted nuclear strategist who passed away recently, explained brinkmanship as a strategy that “means manipulating the shared risk of war. It means exploiting the danger that somebody may inadvertently go over the brink, dragging the other with him” (Arms and Influence, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 98-99)....
Xi Jinping Targets China’s Academia, Social Media: Orders Rigid Ideological Control
China seems to be witnessing a phase, that of wresting back absolute control of academia and social media, primarily through means of reasserting ideological control wherein liberalism, freethinking, and expression are being brutally repressed and crushed by China’s state machinery. In a very flagrant public declaration, Chinese President Xi...
A New Dam on the Brahmaputra
The construction of a second large dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (which becomes the Siang and later the Brahmaputra in India) is well under way. The dam is coming up at Gyatsa (Chinese Gyaca), a few kilometers downstream from the first dam at Zangmu. In November 2014, the Indian Press mentioned the launching of the first unit of the run-of-river...
Political Fallout of the Creation of New Districts in Manipur
Manipur is on the boil on account of the creation of new districts by the Ibobi Singh government. The agitation led by the United Naga Council (UNC) has intensified after seven new districts — Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, Noney, Kamjong, Jiribam and Kakching — were carved out formally from the existing nine districts by the state...
Army can never be the Solution to the Kashmir Problem!
The September 18, 2016 Uri terror attack has possibly changed the course of India-Pakistan relations for years to come. It was the single largest loss of life suffered by the Indian Army since the Kargil war. But the events that followed Uri were of greater significance. The Indian Army crossed the LoC to strike terror “launch pads of...