Spotlights
Pakistan’s Institutional Turf Wars
By: Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd) | Issue: Courtesy: www.dailyexcelsior.com | Date: 24 Aug , 2016
The recent spiral of violence and bloodshed in the Kashmir valley has a dark dimension beyond the linear and hyphenated Indo-Pak rivalry, it is also symptomatic of the intra-Pakistani slugfest...
Union Territory Status for Ladakh?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 23 Aug , 2016
Violence has again erupted in Kashmir. More than ever, Islamabad seems determined to create problems for India in the Valley. And it is not covert anymore! On the occasion of Pakistan’s...
Restructuring the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
By: NP Singh | Issue: Vol. 31.1 Jan-Mar 2016 | Date: 22 Aug , 2016
If we seize this moment, reform may be accomplished in one fell swoop: if we let it pass by, we will lose a great opportunity. — PLA Daily, March 12, 2014 The one thing that caught the world’s...
Women Officers in the Indian Army: A Reality Check
By: Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal | Issue: Vol. 31.2 Apr-Jun 2016 | Date: 21 Aug , 2016
Employment of women officers in the Indian Armed Forces is no longer an issue to be trifled with. Their track record in the areas of expertise that they have been employed in so far clearly...
Developments in PoK and the Kashmir Valley: An Analysis
By: SK Sharma and Ashish Shukla | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 20 Aug , 2016
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a statement on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and expressed his concerns about the state of human rights there. The government as well as the establishment...
Mind the Gap
By: Lt Gen NS Brar | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 19 Aug , 2016
The recent attempted ‘coup’ by the Turkish military has brought back into focus the question of equation and balance between the legitimate government and its armed forces and reinforced the...
Vietnam: The Rising Asian Tiger
By: Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 18 Aug , 2016
Vietnam can prove to be a good buffer to contain China in the South China Sea, if India plays its cards well. In the process of strengthening relations with neighbouring nations, India has...
China Links India’s NSG Prospects with Stand on South China Sea
By: Dr Monika Chansoria | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 17 Aug , 2016
Sensing the direction of renewed round two of negotiations over India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership bid, a Xinhua statement heeds to the probability that “… the door for...
India-China Engagement: Disturbing Divergence
By: Bhaskar Roy | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Analysis Group | Date: 15 Aug , 2016
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his tenure just over two years ago with a message of goodwill and partnership in development with India’s neighbours, including China. Soon after,...
Yom Kippur War: 1973
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Attrition in Air Warfare | Date: 14 Aug , 2016
Chronologically the next war for our study is the Yom Kippur War. If 1967 was a classical study of pre-emptive offensive, then this war of 1973 can be considered how an Air Force ought to react to...
Myanmar, India’s Act East Policy and Waning Chinese Influence
By: Surbhi Moudgil | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 13 Aug , 2016
There has been a repeated emphasis on enhancing cooperation and trust between India and Myanmar as no “Look East Policy” (LEP) or “Act East Policy” (AEP) can be copiously achieved in its...
When Communism was threatened: How Mujahedeen drove communism out of Afghanistan
By: Anant Mishra | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 12 Aug , 2016
The world first knew about Afghanistan in the year 1979. Undoubtedly, Afghanistan then had become a perfect symbol of Russian ambitions in Asia. According to the west, East Germany, Hungary,...
India-Pakistan De-Hyphenation: It Has to Begin at Home
By: Tridivesh Singh Maini | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 11 Aug , 2016
Successive Indian governments since the 1990’s have worked hard to de-hyphenate India from Pakistan in their dealings with the outside world. A number of factors, such as the upward economic...
J&K Conundrum: Ambiguous War with Unambiguous Objectives
By: Brig Narender Kumar (Retd.) | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 10 Aug , 2016
In 2001, I was posted in North Kashmir and one day my friend local Kashmiri asked me, “Sir why don’t you kill the militants in Pakistan before they cross over to Kashmir”? He further...
Mr Wang, Reopen Demchok
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 09 Aug , 2016
In my previous post, I mentioned the railway lines which will soon reach Purang/Taklakot, north of Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand and Yatung in the Chumbi Valley, sandwiched between Sikkim...
Kashmir Unrest: Pakistani 'Deep State' has its Hands Dirty
By: Brig Anil Gupta | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Monitor | Date: 08 Aug , 2016
The latest revelation of the Pakistani Terrorist Bahadur Ali alias Saiffullah, who was captured alive by the Indian security forces in Kupwara sector, that he had met Hafiz Saeed twice in the...
Message from the Indo-Bangladesh Border: `Banijya Basati Lakkhi’
By: Gautam Sen | Issue: Courtesy: IDSA | Date: 07 Aug , 2016
On July 21, 2016, the prime ministers of India and Bangladesh jointly inaugurated, through video-conferencing, Asia’s largest Integrated Check-Post (ICP) at Petrapole, 95 km from Kolkata, in...
Two New Chinese Railway Lines to the Indian Border
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 06 Aug , 2016
The China Daily reported today that a new ‘Himalayan rail route’ has been ‘endorsed’ by Beijing. According to the Chinese official publication: “A Himalayan train ride at more than 100...
The China Factor in India’s Strategic Discourse
By: Dr Mohammed Badrul Alam | Issue: Courtesy: CLAWS | Date: 05 Aug , 2016
The role of China in India-Pakistan security issues as well as in future conflict scenarios is crucial when considering two factors- (a) the historical nature of 1962 war and its follow up between...
Russia-US Rapprochement: A Strategic Imperative
By: Dr Subhash Kapila | Issue: Courtesy: South Asia Analysis Group | Date: 04 Aug , 2016
Russia and United States estranged relationship impinges on global security and stability with China as a ‘revisionist power’ being the major beneficiary of this estrangement and with vested...