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India and Bangladesh: A Multi Faceted Relationship
Full text linkThe physical map of the Indian subcontinent depicts an integrated landmass, bounded by the Pamirs/ Hindukush to the North West and the Himalayas to the North, with the Patkai Range, Naga, and Chin Hills forming a natural border between India’s North-Eastern states and Myanmar. The ends of the Indian Peninsula are bounded by the seas in three directions. This article attempts to review important aspects of the continuously evolving India-Bangladesh relationship—as Bangladesh, today with the second largest GDP in South Asia, journeys through its fifty-first year as an independent nation
India’s Strategic Concerns from Nepal & Bhutan
Full text linkPeace and tranquillity in the Himalayas are essential for India’s security and cordial relations with China. This has been a long-standingunderstanding of the Indian government and was also stressed and reiterated by the Indian officials during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to India in March 2022. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said that relations between the two countries cannot be normal unless there is total disengagement of forces by China. He reminded China to respect treaties and agreements signed between the two countries on border-related issues.1 A peaceful and stable border is relevant for not only the Indian Himalayas but also for the Himalayan countries having common borders and border-related issues with China
India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present: Shivshankar Menon. Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, (2021), Washington D.C. ISBN: 978-0815737230, 416 pp.
No full textThe book, India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present is a thesis of Shivshankar Menon’s discussion with young students of International Relations at Ashoka University. The generation of students, he teaches, is mostly born in the 21st century, the time when India is already in a race to achieve the status of an influential state along with other Asian states. He advocates that Asia, presently, is at the centre of world politics. In highlighting the success of the Asian states, he writes: “India and China have eliminated more poverty in a shorter amount of time than any other nations in history. Several Asian states have acquired the agency in the international system unprecedented in their modern history.
Visualising the Context and Contours of India’s Future Wars
Full text linkThere is a great deal of study and discussion about the character of future wars. Such a study is absolutely essential so that we are not caught in the trap of fighting the last war and finding ourselves on the losing side. However, it is also recognised that predicting future conflicts is not the easiest of tasks. Perhaps we can heed the words of Michael Howard, the eminent military historian, who said, that, “the purpose of future gazing in war is not to get it right but to avoid getting it terribly wrong."
In assessing the future, we must analyse ongoing conflicts as these provide the best possible lessons in a live environment that cannot be replicated in wargames and exercises. However, we must also be mindful that wars occur in specific political, geographic, and strategic settings. What happens in one context may not be directly applicable in another. When the US was engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was predicted that the future of warfare would be insurgencies and countering terrorism. Wars between states were considered unlikely, with the greatest danger of such a war primarily in the Middle East and South Asia. The traditional thinking in the Indian military leadership was that conventional wars would be “short and swift.”
 
Evolving Technologies— A Tool of Strategic Competition: Options for India
Full text linkThe author briefly highlights how Information, Communication Technologies, Electronics and Cyber (ICTEC) and concomitant technologies are outpacing changes that are being witnessed in the environment. He then goes on to logically explain how these advancements in mobility and networking space will affect various broad sections in the military to achieve strategic dominance and leadership role. Shrinking of time and expansion of space/area of influence are clearly brought out in the now possible Network Centric Environment (NCE) that is emerging. However, at the national level, strategic and long-term economic and military dominance have to go hand in hand by achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in the world order. He then goes on to briefly examine the factors that influence strategic sustainable competitive advantage and goes on to list out where India stands in terms of international indexes. The next portion outlines some of the initiatives and directions are taken by the Government towards a well-thought-out vision relating these to wellarticulated theory in academic circles. Citing recent bold decisions, the author expresses hope that India is on the right path of donning a leadership role in the world.
 
India’s Strategic Outlook Towards Its Neighbourhood States
Full text linkThe purpose of the paper is to examine the problematics that the neighbourhood states face, their fault lines, and how they affect thepeace and stability in South Asia in general and towards India in particular. The analysis of the same would lead us to define India’sstrategic outlook and decision-making. It would hence be necessary to cast India’s Strategic outlook in relation to the conceptualisation of the term National Interest, the emerging global order and the fault lines in the new Global Order, and a brief understanding of the phenomenon of nuclear proliferation, collapse of Communism and keeping in mind Huntington’s postulation of the clash of civilisation and its aftereffects as we see in the 21st century
India, Vietnam in the Indo-Pacific: A Unifying Construct
Full text linkIs Indo-Pacific the one overarching forum, evolving from a geopolitical imagination that can bring the two countries closer? If itbe so, then what are the avenues and possibilities that exist in the Indo-Pacific sphere for India and Vietnam, and what are the benefits and drawbacks of subscription to such a concept? Will it be feasible enough to sustain the aspirations as well as concerns of the two countries or there is a need for returning back to basics, and entrusting ASEAN with the centrality which is required for peace and security in the larger Asia-Pacific region. Is China a necessary evil or is it being demonised by the western media? What could be the contours of the evolving geopolitical order when alternatives such as BRICS, SCO, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have been getting attention and subscription from countries across Europe, Africa, and Asia? Has regionalism lost sheen and bilateralism is the only way to deal with larger security and political issues. This paper would address these issues and look for possibilities with regard to India and Vietnam cooperating in the geo-political, and geo-strategic construct which is now known as Indo-Pacific
India-Israel Defence Relations: From Longstanding to Robust
Full text linkIndia and Israel relations, even though just three decades old, have subsequently progressed over the years, especially in the fields ofdefence and agri-tech. After lying dormant since the time India formally recognised the Jewish nation in September 1950; the international, regional and domestic geostrategic environment compelled New Delhi to establish diplomatic relations and to normalise its relations with Tel Aviv in January 1992. The normalisation not only earmarked the beginning of a full-fledged engagement between the two countries but also provided impetus to India’s defence requirements
Securing India’s Rise: A Persuasive Case for an Indian National Security Makeover
Full text linkAn aspirational, resurgent, India, today, in many ways, is the geopolitical toast of the world. In numerous metrics, it does seem to be well on its way to becoming a ‘Vikasit Bharat’ in the time frame of 2047-2050. If there is one eventuality, however, that could disfigure India’s rise as a ‘developed nation by 2047, it is a major national security reversal. In the eight years, the Government has laid a strong foundation for India’s National Security Makeover. Given the accumulating strategic adversity around its peripheries, however, multiple transitions still need to be made. The article examines the challenges and opportunities that line India’s National Security Path as also the transformation that we need to guardrail India’s rise. In doing so, the article also discusses the steps that the Indian Military and wider Defence need to take to transit from a framework focused narrowly on India’s Defence to one that can also enable its Rise.
 
The Gilgit-Baltistan Factor in India-Pakistan Dynamics
Full text linkGilgit-Baltistan (GB), part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, is swiftly ascending on the geopolitical horizon in the wake of coveted ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor being built through it. Given India’s strident reservations on CPEC based on its extant claim on the region,GB has gained considerable focus in the India-Pakistan equations as well. GB represents a stark reality that stares at India’s broaderquest against burgeoning Sino- Pakistan nexus on its periphery. The paper relooks at India-Pakistan dynamics-bilateral and geopolitical through the lens of GB while listing out India’s approach, position, and implications vis-à-vis GB