Articles in Geopolitics

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...

Threat from China
By: Bharat Verma | Issue: Vol 23.2 Apr-Jul 2008 | Date: 27 Nov , 2011
New Delhi’s portrayal of the humiliating defeat at the hands of Chinese in 1962 as ‘betrayal’ and ‘surprise’ is untrue. The pacifist Indian leadership that was crying hoarse from...

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...

China-India Maritime Rivalry
By: Cdr Gurpreet S Khurana | Issue: Vol. 23.4 Oct-Dec 2008 | Date: 22 Nov , 2011
In the Post-Cold War Era re-distribution of power, the balance is clearly shifting to Asia. This is primarily due to the increasing comprehensive National Power (CNP) of China and India. But as...

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...

Turbulence in South Asia
By: Maj Gen Afsir Karim | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 17 Nov , 2011
The main reason for the growing influence of fundamentalists in the Af-Pak region is the continued presence of U.S.-NATO troops in this region. The Islamists in both countries have a common...

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...

Punjab's Pakistan
By: RSN Singh | Issue: Vol 22.4 Oct-Dec 2007 | Date: 13 Nov , 2011
The part that constitutes the Punjab province in Pakistan, like other provinces of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, were not enthusiastic about the concept of Pakistan. It was much later, in the early...

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...

Tibet and British India - I
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Book Excerpt: Tibet - The Lost Frontier | Date: 11 Nov , 2011
Started in 1600 as a company with shareholders to peacefully and profitably develop trade with the Asian continent, the East India Company was no longer a trading concern by the beginning of the...

Jihadis will capture the Pak Military - IV
By: Ramtanu Maitra | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 11 Nov , 2011
Ilyas Kashmiri, whose death in a 2011 U.S. missile attack still remains to be confirmed, founded Brigade 313, later an operational arm of al-Qaeda, within his jihadist organisation Harkat...

China takes over Nepal
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Nov , 2011
What is going on in Nepal? If one goes by the latest news, nothing good for India. Why did Mr. Shyam Saran, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy had to pay a quick visit to the former Himalayan...

Jihadis will capture the Pak Military - III
By: Ramtanu Maitra | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 10 Nov , 2011
Bringing the Taliban to Power By conducting a proxy-war on behalf of the Western nations and Saudi Arabia against the Soviet military, Pakistan morphed into a central hub that attracted a...

Jihadis will capture the Pak Military - II
By: Ramtanu Maitra | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 08 Nov , 2011
Encouraging Sunni Militants: The Rise of Shia Iran There were still other factors in and around Pakistan that contributed to the transformations that Gartenstein-Ross addressed. For instance,...

Jihadis will capture the Pak Military - I
By: Ramtanu Maitra | Issue: Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date: 07 Nov , 2011
The military brass who have begun to embrace the jihadis may have other interests in mind, as well. For instance, Pakistan’s military has been in power, or directing those in power from its...

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...