This article explores the objectives of China's engagement in the Maldives and how the current administration of the country is responding to it. The article also looks at how the Maldives has been used by major powers in the past. On the basis of these analyses, it envisages the path that Maldivian foreign policy is likely to follow in the future and its likely impact on the security environment in the Indian Ocean region.

• Anand Kumar |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article outlines the National Solar Mission's role as India's major climate change mitigation policy, arguing that India's National Solar Mission (NSM) was initially conceived to bolster India's position against legally binding commitments on carbon emissions. However, the NSM also has twin objectives in energy security. Progress in the NSM is outlined before its problems are examined in order to clarify how the Indian government may direct its development to fulfil energy security and energy access goals.

• Nigel Singh |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

The discovery of extracting unconventional (shale) gas through hydraulic fracturing has revolutionised the gas industry in the US and has given rise to a debate over whether it has the potential to reverse the emerging geopolitical equations in the global energy sector which was hitherto seen to be tilting in favour of the conventional energy producers.

• Shebonti Ray Dadwal |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article will bring to light the transformation of the Pakistani state from a relatively tolerant to an unstable state dominated by militancy and violence. In the formative phase of Pakistan, the notion of religious extremism was almost non-existent as the founder of the country, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, made it clear that the new state would not be theocratic in nature.

• Moonis Ahmar |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

The Pashtun populations of Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been a source of bilateral contention, with each government inciting Pashtun tribals against the other. Now that the majority of Pashtuns live in Pakistan, Islamabad is using its Pashtun connections to project influence into Afghanistan. As a result, both Afghanistan and Pakistan are threatened by runaway Pashtun militancy. Peace and stability in both countries will be impossible until political reforms have been implemented in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.

• Robert Boggs |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

Article 1 of the United Nations Charter declares the maintenance of international peace and security to be the primary function of the United Nations. This makes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) the most important organ of the whole establishment. All other functions and engagements of the United Nations are in support of the primary cause.

• Saurabh Mishra |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

Coined a few years ago, ‘asymmetric warfare’ is an umbrella term that includes insurgent and terrorist campaigns that Western militaries were forced to contend with in the course of external interventions. Asymmetric wars for Western countries are wars of choice, not wars of necessity.

• S. Kalyanaraman |
• March 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

The recent fad among Western security commentaries is to portray India as a natural member of East Asian political life.

• Zorawar Daulet Singh |
• January 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

The opening up of the Chinese economy in 1978 was a watershed event in Chinese history. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to open up certain sections of the economy in order to maintain good economic growth.

• Gunjan Singh |
• January 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis

China's global presence is indisputable, yet for most of the Cold War, China shied away from an international role. However, as China's economic profile has risen, so too has its interest in engaging with regions further afield.

• Victoria Tuke |
• January 2012 |
• Strategic Analysis