Geopolitics

Pakistan at War with Itself
By: Bharat Verma | Issue: Vol. 27.1 -Mar 2012 | Date: 02 Feb , 2012
In the coming years, Islamabad will remain pre-occupied with internal strife without respite due to multiple contradictions arising out of the use of terrorism primarily against New Delhi as a...

Can Pakistan’s Army be Restrained?
By: Bhaskar Roy | Issue: Courtesy: Uday India | Date: 18 Jan , 2012
In an interview with the BBC last December, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ms Hina Rabbani Khar admitted that the Pakistan army’s overwhelming power and influence over the civilian government...

Assertive Dragon
By: Dr Pushpa Adhikari | Issue: Book Excerpt: China Threat in South Asia | Date: 16 Jan , 2012
Ahead of offering an Indian perspective on rising China, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (in Washington) said lately, “there is but a certain amount of assertiveness on the Chinese...

China bolsters Pak Army’s image
By: B Raman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 06 Jan , 2012
As the Pakistan Army confronts the US on the one hand and the civilian leadership headed by President Asif Ali Zardari on the other in a triangular re-assertion of its primacy in strategic...

The War of Nerves in Pakistan: Q & A
By: B Raman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 02 Jan , 2012
Q: What is the likelihood of Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), staging a coup, seizing political power and imposing the rule of the Army till fresh elections...

Kim Jong-Un: Little Known Ruler of an Unpredictable State
By: B Raman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 20 Dec , 2011
One need not be surprised by the regional and global nervousness over the death of Kim Jong-Il, the ruler of North Korea, following a heart attack reportedly suffered by him on board a train on...

India-US Relations: Future Trajectory
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol 24.4 Oct-Dec 2009 | Date: 16 Dec , 2011
The confidence of the Indian establishment that India–US relations were set on a steep upward trajectory has eroded noticeably with President Obama replacing President Bush. Even though...

India Russia: Strategic Relations
By: Air Marshal Narayan Menon | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 03 Dec , 2011
The India-Russia strategic relations with its embedded military ties have been, in the past 15 years, buffeted by the turbulence of international upheavals and domestic events. The collapse of...

Afghanistan: Strategic Alliance vs Strategic Depth
By: Lt Gen Harwant Singh | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 01 Dec , 2011
Historically, Afghanistan has been the most difficult country for military campaigns and equally difficult to govern. The nature of terrain, the climate and the tribes that inhabit the land make...

Avoidable Unpleasantness in India-China Relations
By: B Raman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 Nov , 2011
Avoidable unpleasantness has recently crept into India-China relations over issues which should not have been over-dramatised by China thereby injecting a certain distrust into the relations...

Pakistan’s Emergence as the Epicentre of Terrorism
By: Anand K Verma | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 23 Nov , 2011
The idea of Pakistan survives on the premise of enmity towards India. This premise came into existence well before Pakistan became a reality. Some in Pakistan believe that the country started...

India and the Afghan Imbroglio
By: Air Marshal BK Pandey | Issue: Vol. 26.4 Oct-Dec 2011 | Date: 23 Nov , 2011
In all likelihood, in collusion with Pakistan, China is all set to arrive in Afghanistan in a big way drawn essentially by the huge mineral resources there that remain unexploited and access to...

India’s New Found Confidence
By: Air Marshal RS Bedi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Nov , 2011
A couple of land mark events have taken place during the last few months; India asserting its rights to explore oil in South China Sea by entering into a contract with the Vietnamese government...

The Darkness in Afghanistan
By: Kanwal Sibal | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 18 Nov , 2011
Even as the US is withdrawing, its leaders insist that they are not going to abandon Afghanistan, that they will maintain their long term commitment to it and not allow any single country to...

Indo-Pak: Limitations of Peace Talks
By: Prakash Nanda | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 17 Nov , 2011
One always has a lot of emotional attachment with his or her place of birth. Therefore it is understandable why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a very soft corner for Pakistan. He once had...

NATO’s Expansion: Ramifications for India
By: Brig Vijai K Nair | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 16 Nov , 2011
Formed in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) constituted a system of collective defence that continued to enlarge its membership in keeping with Cold War imperatives to contain...

End game in Afghanistan
By: Pinaki Bhattacharya | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 11 Nov , 2011
Then Associated Press (AP) published a story on 29 August 2010 about how Afghan government officials outed the secret about U.S. talks with the Taliban, which had reached a fairly substantive...

Tibetan unrest spreads
By: B Raman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 02 Nov , 2011
The unrest of Tibetan monks, which has so far led to 10 attempts to commit self-immolation — seven of them successful resulting in deaths — in Western Sichuan, is now showing signs of spreading...

The Jihadi War – II
By: Col Harjeet Singh | Issue: Vol 23.2 Apr-Jul 2008 | Date: 01 Nov , 2011
Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name used by the US government for its military response to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the country. Holding the...

The Jihadi War – I
By: Col Harjeet Singh | Issue: Vol 23.2 Apr-Jul 2008 | Date: 31 Oct , 2011
The lack of success in operation enduring Freedom in Afghanistan results from the US-led coalition’s failure to develop and implement, jointly, a coherent strategy for its conduct that...