Interviews/Spotlights
Conditions needed for India-Pakistan rapprochement
By: Air Marshal B D Jayal | Issue: Courtesy: US National Strategy Forum Review | Date: 08 Aug , 2013
The act of geographically dividing a people on an untested “two nation theory,” ignoring a shared multi-cultural heritage dating back centuries, was bound to have consequences beyond anything...
India’s options in dealing with Pakistan
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 07 Aug , 2013
When we consider our options, the first reality that we must accept is that we have no option but to deal with Pakistan irrespective of whether we have friendly or inimical relations with it, as...
Terror related activities in developing India
By: S. Sanyal | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 05 Aug , 2013
As defined, development is a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage. It involves a process of becoming deeper and more profound. It is a progression from simpler to...
Afghanistan: 2014 will be a turning point
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 01 Aug , 2013
2014 will be a turning point in Afghanistan. Power will be handed over to a new President after elections. The US military will complete its withdrawal. The Afghan National Security Forces will...
Poor Mapping by Military Survey
By: Lt Gen Prakash Katoch | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 31 Jul , 2013
Last month the military ordered a study to reorganize the Military Survey. The need to reorganize this veritable British legacy monolith was never more. There is but one intriguing element; why...
Internal Challenges
By: Maj Gen Afsir Karim | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 29 Jul , 2013
Management of internal security has become a greater challenge with the increasing threats of domestic and foreign-sponsored terrorism and the widening ethnic, religious and political divides in...
Reasoning the Indian Mujahideen
By: Danvir Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 24 Jul , 2013
The Indian Mujahideen (IM) has been quiet active ever since the banning of SIMI in 2001. Almost all the blasts, starting from Delhi in 2008 to Bodh Gaya recently, they have been...
China’s ‘String of Pearls’ – Is Male Next?
By: Cmde Ranjit B Rai | Issue: Vol. 28.2 Apr-Jun 2013 | Date: 24 Jul , 2013
Although embroiled in disputes with Japan and ASEAN over islands in the South China Sea, China has just announced a ‘Look West’ policy which includes steps to deal with India. As per...
Avoidable Tragedies
By: Air Marshal B D Jayal | Issue: Courtesy: The Telegraph | Date: 20 Jul , 2013
It is now nearing a month since disaster struck the upper reaches of Uttarakhand, unleashing nature’s fury and shattering the lives of thousands of pilgrims and local people. The number of...
Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA): China's Dangerous Trap
By: Lt Gen Prakash Katoch | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 Jul , 2013
Writing in these columns on the brazen Chinese intrusions into Indian Territory, it had been brought out that China considers ‘minds of the hierarchy (political and bureaucratic)’ of the...
Political Islam’s Failure
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Courtesy: Mail Today | Date: 09 Jul , 2013
If the overthrow of President Mubarak by the mass of protestors in Tahrir Square in 2011 was a surprise, the ouster of President Morsi by even larger protests in Tahrir Square and across Egypt in...
Joining the Security Dots: Cyber Security, Surveillance and Democracy
By: Maj Gen S G Vombatkere | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 06 Jul , 2013
Edward Snowden, in his courageous, principled expose, has brought out how USA’s National Security Agency (NSA) has been spying on most nations in the world. This spying is clearly to establish or...
India’s Energy Faux Pas
By: Lt Gen Prakash Katoch | Date: 03 Jul , 2013
The emergence of shale gas on the global scene has ushered a new era of energy revolution transforming the need versus resource debate with far reaching strategic ramifications. Heightened...
Defence Acquisitions: Risk Management — Better Than Crisis Management
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 28.1 Jan-Mar 2013 | Date: 02 Jul , 2013
It is very rare that a defence acquisition programme follows the planned timelines. There are a number of reasons for the same. Over-ambitious and impractical production estimates pose major...
MoD scuttled the proposal for a Permanent Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee
By: Col (Dr) PK Vasudeva | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 19 Jun , 2013
Unfortunately, India is not likely to get a super-General as adviser to the defence minister and also member of the cabinet committee on security for advice on defence and national security...
Peace with Pakistan: an idea whose time has passed
By: Dr Prem Mahadevan | Issue: Vol 25.1 Jan-Mar 2010 | Date: 09 Jun , 2013
A leading Indian english language newspaper has chosen to begin 2010 by stirring up controversy. It has run a series of editorials advocating peace initiatives with Pakistan, despite the manifest...
Chinese Longue Duree: PLA Modernisation
By: Pinaki Bhattacharya | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 05 Jun , 2013
An impressionable Henry Kissinger, the then U.S. national security adviser, was clearly awed by the presence of his Chinese interlocutor, Zhou Enlai, steeped in revolutionary history and the...
Route-Out aur Route-In Alag Hoga
By: Rahul Chutani | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 01 Jun , 2013
“Route-Out aur Route-In Alag Hoga” said the Ustad at the Indian Military Academy. This phrase sounded too basic and too simplistic at that time to the young boys sitting there, imbibing...
Senior leadership and ‘any peg in any hole’ syndrome
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 29 May , 2013
The news of the posting of General David Petraeus as Commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan must have been received with a certain degree of disbelief by the status-conscious Indian...
Looking beyond the DBO face off
By: Maj Gen Dhruv C Katoch | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 21 May , 2013
With the Chinese removing the four tents pitched in Indian Territory at an altitude of 17,500 feet, a few kilometers South of Daulat Beg Oldi(DBO) in the Depsang Plains in Eastern Ladakh a...