Spotlights

The pitfalls in evolution of Indian Army-III

The pitfalls in evolution of Indian Army-III

By: Maj Gen Sukhwant Singh | Issue: Book Excerpt: India's War since Independence | Date: 28 Jan , 2011

The Indian opening of a second front in Punjab on 6 September forced Ayub Khan to pull troops out of the Chhamb-Jaurian sector to reinforce the Lahore and Sialkot sectors. Despite thinning out,...

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The pitfalls in evolution of Indian Army-II

The pitfalls in evolution of Indian Army-II

By: Maj Gen Sukhwant Singh | Issue: Book Excerpt: India's War since Independence | Date: 27 Jan , 2011

Chaudhuri set about his task energetically and with dispatch, bringing to his job as Chief a wealth of experience of well-handled assignments both in command and staff, including his tenure as...

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Defining Victory: The Dilemma in Anti-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency

Defining Victory: The Dilemma in Anti-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency

By: Col Harjeet Singh | Issue: Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date: 12 Jan , 2011

The usage of the term, ‘war’ when battling terrorism or insurgency raises several issues. An important one is the use of the term ‘victory’ to delineate the desired objective in this...

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Indian Energy Security-III

Indian Energy Security-III

By: Ashish Puntambekar | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 29 Dec , 2010

The Pipelines SPV The pipelines Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV 2) will be a consortium of Indian energy companies and strategic investors some of whom will be investing primarily for tax purposes....

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Indian Energy Security-II

Indian Energy Security-II

By: Ashish Puntambekar | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 29 Dec , 2010

The Indian Need India is growing fast. Last year, a survey of some 600 companies by the NCAER found that an astonishing 96 percent of them were operating at close to their optimal levels of...

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France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-III

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-III

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 24 Dec , 2010

The second part of the speech is consecrated to disarmament. It is probably the most detailed account by a French President When international security improves, France draws the consequences....

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France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-II

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-II

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 23 Dec , 2010

People are ‘reproducible’ the Great Helmsman is said to have stated. That day, Nehru understood that India and China were not brothers, though Mao was at his charming best, when Nehru left...

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France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-I

France & Nuclear Disarmament between vision & realism-I

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 22 Dec , 2010

The question of nuclear disarmament has always given rise to diverse, if not opposite reactions. Commentators have described the positions of different nations (and sometimes within the same...

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Burma to Japan with Azad Hind-III

Burma to Japan with Azad Hind-III

By: Air Commodore Ramesh S Benegal | Issue: Book Excerpt: Burma to Japan with Azad Hind | Date: 19 Dec , 2010

The story goes that the aircraft managed to land on the runway that night amidst the confusion that existed at the base with aircraft landing and taking off in streams. The commandos managed to...

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Burma to Japan with Azad Hind-II

Burma to Japan with Azad Hind-II

By: Air Commodore Ramesh S Benegal | Issue: Book Excerpt: Burma to Japan with Azad Hind | Date: 18 Dec , 2010

The first two months of our training were devoted to toughening us up and putting us through ground subjects such as the principles of flight, meteorology, aero-engines and some Japanese military...

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The Great Game: 21st Century Version-III

The Great Game: 21st Century Version-III

By: Vikram Sood | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 16 Dec , 2010

Both China and Pakistan are getting ready for an economic boom that will include transit trade to Central Asia. The Pakistan Army’s National Logistics Cell, which has a near monopoly, will...

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The Great Game: 21st Century Version-II

The Great Game: 21st Century Version-II

By: Vikram Sood | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 15 Dec , 2010

The new US foreign policy of “transformational diplomacy” is not merely about just reporting the world as it is but about replicating nation-states into US clones. Post conflict multinational...

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The Great Game: 21st Century Version-I

The Great Game: 21st Century Version-I

By: Vikram Sood | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 14 Dec , 2010

The Rules of the Game:The current century began in an intensely violent manner and there are no signs of a let up. Two and a half deadly wars are being fought in our neighbourhood and threaten to...

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Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-III

Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-III

By: Scott Taylor | Issue: Vol 25.3 Jul-Sep 2010 | Date: 10 Dec , 2010

“We are Ansar al-Islam.” …I knew that this group …had links to al-Qaeda. When it had proved impossible to enter Mosul safely, we had circled back into the desert and spent the night at...

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Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-II

Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-II

By: Scott Taylor | Issue: Vol 25.3 Jul-Sep 2010 | Date: 09 Dec , 2010

“She is encouraging her ‘sons’ to go out and become martyrs and die in battle…” In the morning, Tal Afar was strangely quiet except for the continuous buzzing of the unmanned Predators...

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Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-I

Inside Iraq: Five Days in Hell-I

By: Scott Taylor | Issue: Vol 25.3 Jul-Sep 2010 | Date: 08 Dec , 2010

This is a first hand account of a journalist, Scott Taylor, about his tryst with death at the hands of Islamic extremists in Iraq about five years back. The religious and social dynamics in the...

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Taiwan's courtship with India-II

Taiwan's courtship with India-II

By: Prakash Nanda | Issue: Book Excerpt: Rising India | Date: 07 Dec , 2010

Major Advantages: First, given the importance of China in Indian foreign policy, Indian policy makers, foreign policy analysts and think tanks must understand Beijing well. This is particularly...

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Taiwan's courtship with India-I

Taiwan's courtship with India-I

By: Prakash Nanda | Issue: Book Excerpt: Rising India | Date: 06 Dec , 2010

Ever since the communists under the late Mao Tse-tung forced the then Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 to flee to Taiwan, the situation across the Taiwan straits that separate Mainland...

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Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-III

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-III

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 05 Dec , 2010

Obstacles to Indo-French Relations: At the outset, it is necessary to point out that today no major political differences darken the sky between Paris and Delhi except, of course, the unexpected...

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Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-II

Indo-French Friendship to Partnership-II

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol 23.1 Jan-Mar 2008 | Date: 04 Dec , 2010

Phase 2: 1971-1990: The Office of the Historian of the US State Department which has recently released the declassified documents of the Nixon Administration terms the policy of the US President...

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