Articles in Courtesy: South Asia Monitor
India’s Af-Pak policy: Risks and Opportunities
By: Divya Kumar Soti | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 17 Dec , 2015
The Ufa Joint Statement issued by the prime ministers of India and Pakistan had envisaged a preliminary framework to address the issues of terrorism, ceasefire violations and to find out “ways...
NSA meeting in Bangkok: Setting stage for Modi visit to Pakistan?
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 08 Dec , 2015
The unobtrusively arranged, below the radar meeting between the National Security Advisers (NSA) of India and Pakistan in Bangkok on Sunday (December 6) may be seen as a case of a belated but...
Turkey downs a Russian bomber and stirs Syrian cauldron
By: Monish Gulati | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 28 Nov , 2015
Two Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24M Fencer fighter-bomber at 9:24 AM local time on 24 November after it purportedly crossed into the Turkish airspace and ignored 10 warnings in five...
Terrorist Attacks: Is the world really helpless?
By: NS Venkatraman | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 27 Nov , 2015
The massacre of more than 120 innocent people in Paris is not the first incident of horror in recent times. The massacre of school children in Pakistan, the September 11 attack in 2001 when...
PM Narendra Modi visit gives India a higher profile in ASEAN
By: Mahendra Ved | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 26 Nov , 2015
A new and powerful economic community is emerging in India’s extended neighborhood at a time when the world as a whole is facing economic uncertainties, combating the scourge of terrorism and is...
After Paris Attacks: Will Middle East again burn Western hands?
By: Divya Kumar Soti | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 23 Nov , 2015
As the horrors and plot of 13/11 Paris Attack unfold, its comparison with 26/11 Mumbai carnage becomes unavoidable given the striking similarities in the nature of soft targets chosen by the...
Paris Assault: India needs to review threat assessment of IS
By: Monish Gulati | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 19 Nov , 2015
In near-simultaneous attacks on November 13, assailants armed with assault rifles and wearing explosive belts targeted six sites in Paris killing more than 120 people. The serial attacks have...
India slips on Chinese oil in Nepal
By: Cdr Kapil Narula | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 06 Nov , 2015
Nepal, a landlocked country, lies between India and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and has strong cultural and political links with India. Both countries share a “special relationship”...
Time running out for Afghanistan
By: Lt Gen Kamal Davar (Retd) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 24 Oct , 2015
War ravaged Afghanistan, the “graveyard of empires”, continues to descend into growing political instability and recurrent fratricidal conflict. That the overall security situation in the...
China’s Military Cut: Xi’s Attempts at Control
By: Divya Kumar Soti | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 09 Oct , 2015
During the September 3 celebrations marking China’s victory over Japan in the Second World War, President Xi Jinping announced a big military cut scheduled to be completed by 2017. The proposed...
Why the Madhesi people revolted in Nepal
By: Sohan Prasad Sha | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 08 Oct , 2015
The past two decades in Nepal has witnessed a series of revolts, unrest and uprising of the people. Ever since the peace process started, with a popular 12-point agreement in 2005 between Maoists...
Karakoram Highway: A security challenge for India
By: Brig Anil Gupta | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 02 Oct , 2015
Karakoram Highway (KKH) connects Abbottabad in Punjab (Pakistan) to Kashgar, Xinjiang region of China across the Karakoram ranges. India has five mountain ranges which guard its northern...
Sri Lanka: Key to Indian strategy in South Asia
By: Aniket Bhavthankar | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 02 Oct , 2015
Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to India for his maiden overseas tour after his election from September 14-17, 2015. Since the appointment of Maithripala Sirisena as...
India and Nepal: Review of policies likely
By: KV Rajan | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 28 Sep , 2015
Nepal has a constitution at last. On September 20, 2015, an overwhelming majority of an elected Constituent Assembly voted in favour of a constitution ushering in a federal, democratic, secular...
UNSC Reforms: India must make most of the momentum
By: Chayanika Saxena | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 24 Sep , 2015
With the baggage of a moribund predecessor to tow around, the inception of United Nations was seen as a moment when initiatives geared at creating and sustaining international security could be...
Refugee crisis in EU - Militarisation of response
By: Monish Gulati | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 22 Sep , 2015
Even as divisions deepen amongst EU member states on how to respond to the rising refugee influx, three narratives have dominated the refugee crisis in Europe. One, that Europe has been part of...
Border Violations: Respond in Language Pak Army understands
By: Jai Kumar Verma | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 19 Sep , 2015
The relations between India and Pakistan are generally tense and both countries do not miss any opportunity to slander the other although several times the accusations and counter accusations are...
50th anniversary of 1965 war: Lessons remain elusive
By: Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 04 Sep , 2015
The 50th anniversary of the 1965 war covertly initiated by Pakistan against India is being recalled by the Narendra Modi government in a month-long celebratory commemoration that commenced on...
Red rags and preconditions: An opportunity lost between India and Pakistan
By: Monish Gulati | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 24 Aug , 2015
Pakistan on Saturday night called off the first-ever NSA-level talks, with its Foreign Office saying that the proposed talks between the NSAs of the two countries would not serve any purpose, if...
India badly needs a separate Ministry of Homeland Security
By: Brig Anil Gupta | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 10 Aug , 2015
It has been widely reported in American media that ISIS has a grand design of uniting the numerous Afghan and Pakistani terrorist groups to forge a new “Army of Terror” based in the Af-Pak...