Mahinda Rajapaksa has emerged as perhaps the only Sri Lankan leader who has managed to secure some strategic autonomy in conducting his country's foreign policy vis-à-vis India. He engaged India effectively during the military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and simultaneously countervailed India by improving his country's relationship with India's traditional adversaries such as China and Pakistan. In the post-LTTE scenario, he has maintained a defiant posture vis-à-vis India over the latter's persuasion to evolve a political solution to the ethnic issue.

• Ashok K. Behuria , Gulbin Sultana
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

The ‘ethnic question’ in Sri Lanka, even after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), evokes a sense of suspense, uncertainty and even a possible conflict of interest in the otherwise robust and multifaceted relationship between India and Sri Lanka. The article adopts a multi-agent model derived from the positional analysis and identifies three principal agents in Indo-Sri Lanka relations—the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), the Government of India (GoI) and Tamil Nadu.

• Amali Wedagedara
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

One cannot deny the inexorable advantage that geography has given Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Being the only link between the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and Pakistan, PoK is truly the ‘umbilical cord’—a bond that is symbolical of the very deep relationship between the two countries. The PRC has at various forums asserted that it only has an economic interest in PoK and has openly denied the presence of People's Liberation Army (PLA) personnel in PoK.

• Mandip Singh
• January 2013
• Strategic Analysis

An old African proverb—‘Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter’—comes to mind after reading Farhat Taj's combative, if also compelling, and to an extent controversial, description of what is actually happening on ground zero of the War on Terror, i.e. the Pashtun-dominated belt of the Afpak region. Often enough, the dominant narrative of any war drowns the voices of those living through and dying in the conflict. This is precisely what has happened in the Pashtun-populated areas that lie in the eye of the Islamist storm.

• Sushant Sareen
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The article argues that as India and Bhutan have moved into the second phase of power cooperation, it is important that the two countries revisit their policies and identify approaches that will be sustainable in the long term. The article emphasises that a sub-regional energy grid between Bhutan, India and Bangladesh can become an effective conduit for strengthening sub-regional diplomacy and help in addressing the latent but underlying concerns of Bhutan, which have the potential to impact India–Bhutan bilateral relations in the long term.

• Medha Bisht
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The relations between Bangladesh and India are important and have a strong historic basis. The prospects for these relations to grow in strength are indeed enormous if they are pursued for mutual benefit and with mutual respect. Our geographical proximity, cultural affinity and shared history should form the parameters of our relations.

• Begum Khaleda Zia MP
• September 2012
• Strategic Analysis

This article is an attempt to understand India's concerns over the Diamer Bhasha dam project within the overall ambit of India's approach towards Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It makes a holistic assessment of the feasibility of the project, the political and technical issues involved in it, the long-term strategy of Pakistan and China in the region, and the local reactions, which must inform India's future policy preferences regarding PoK. The article is divided into three parts.

• Priyanka Singh
• July 2012
• Strategic Analysis

Maritime strategy is playing an ever greater role in Indian strategic thinking. As India reaches for great power status, it is increasingly turning to the Indian Ocean to expand its strategic space. Although it currently operates in co-operation with the United States, India has long-term aspirations towards attaining naval predominance throughout much of the Indian Ocean. In conjunction with an expansion of India's naval capabilities, there has been a significant strengthening of India's maritime security relationships throughout the region.

• S. Kulshrestha
• May 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The objectives of this article are, firstly, to identify the place occupied by the Indian Ocean and South Asia in China's maritime strategy, and secondly, to identify the appropriate means of dealing with the global and regional maritime security concerns arising from China's maritime strategy as far as the Indian Ocean and South Asia are concerned.

• Sithara Fernando
• May 2012
• Strategic Analysis

There are many volumes on conflict resolution and nuclear proliferation. While the conflict scholarship focuses on management, resolution and transformation of conflicts, the proliferation scholarship examines why states acquire nuclear weapons in the first place and whether or not these have any deterrent value. The book under review goes beyond these two prospects by questioning what happens when a state, in protracted conflicts, acquires nuclear weapons.

• Zafar Khan
• March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

The possibility of total decimation of ISIS gives the world an opportunity to take the fight against global terror to several localised jihadist groups operating across the world, before they forge new cross-continental alliances and give rise to a larger terror conglomerate.

• Adil Rasheed
• November 05, 2019
• IDSA Comments

South Asia has a common history and celebrates its great cultural and linguistic overlap. However, the South Asian experience in building cooperative security architecture has been mixed. India on its part remains committed to strengthening cooperative security in the region.

• Amb. Sujan R. Chinoy
• October 23, 2019
• IDSA Comments

With a failing foreign policy and a crippling economy, and growing domestic opposition as well as criticism within the army, Imran Khan and his government is clearly caught between the devil and the deep sea.

• Zainab Akhter
• October 17, 2019
• IDSA Comments

With China now willing to discuss issues of mutual interest with India, a well-structured bilateral dialogue on regional and global terrorism may go a long way in convincing Beijing of the need to put pressure on Islamabad to act against terror

• Amb. Sujan R. Chinoy
• May 16, 2019
• IDSA Comments

The Easter bomb blasts is a grim reminder of how the undercurrent of ethno-religious violence remains a dominant factor in Sri Lanka’s chequered history.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• April 29, 2019
• IDSA Comments

Although the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement has been able to mainstream the Pashtun issue and has inspired popular empathy, its anti-establishment thrust has made it a soft target for the pro-establishment media and political actors.

• Zainab Akhter
• January 28, 2019
• IDSA Comments

Trump seems to have reconciled himself to the fact that Afghanistan may become an ‘Islamic Emirate of Taliban’ with Sharia Law being imposed with or without the consent of the people.

• V. Mahalingam
• January 01, 2019
• IDSA Comments

It remains to be seen whether AL in its third term will be able to address the issue of rampant corruption that has deeply permeated the governance structure as well as the issue of free speech that many believe the ICT Act has impaired.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik
• December 31, 2018
• IDSA Comments

The challenge that the TLYP poses to Pakistan’s internal stability is even more dangerous than the threat of terrorism.

• Yaqoob-ul-Hassan
• November 22, 2018
• IDSA Comments

Voters in Bhutan have shown their political maturity by bringing in a new government, which is an indicator of growing awareness about their rights and their role in holding governments to account.

• Nihar R. Nayak , Rajrajeshwari Singh , Ashok K. Behuria
• November 12, 2018
• Issue Brief