Journal of Defence Studies

India at Risk by Jaswant Singh

The book covers reflections of a soldier-turned-politician on the security challenges faced by India since her independence. The author has covered major events like the 1947–48 Kashmir War, the 1962 India–China War and the 1965 Indo-Pak War (the two operations in which he participated), besides the 1971 War for Liberation of Bangladesh and other events till the 1990s, based on research material.

Energy and Security in South Asia: Cooperation or Conflict? by Charles K. Ebinger

South Asia, with its legacy of suspicion, mistrust, ethnic sectarianism, and political parochialism would have fallen off the global map had it not been for its large and growing populations. Its people are poor largely because they do not have access to commercial energy. This is, perhaps, the greatest challenge that governments of the region face.

Insurgency in North-East India: External Dynamics

State and non-state elements in India’s neighbourhood have been supporting insurgency in the North-East to weaken the Indian state. In the 1960s and 1970s, insurgents from the region, particularly the Naga rebels, had received moral and material support from China. Moreover, elements in Pakistan and Bangladesh too have been aiding North-East Indian insurgents from time to time.

Indian Perceptions of China’s Maritime Silk Road Idea

The Maritime Silk Road (MSR) idea is part of this wider attempt by China to construct multiple lines of communication to its economic heartland in eastern China since the early 2000s. The underlying aim of such a geostrategy is to also develop inner Chinese provinces and shape China’s regional periphery by exercising economic, political and cultural Influence.

Pakistan the Garrison State: Origins, Evolution, Consequences 1947–2011 by Ishtiaq Ahmed

Pakistan has had a distinctive and chequered trajectory since its creation in August 1947, following the partition of British India, and was conceived on the basis of the contested two-nation theory. The latter formulation, championed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, averred that the Muslims of the subcontinent needed their own state and against aback drop of cynical realpolitik considerations and venal politics, the new state was born in the womb of intense Hindu–Muslim communal violence.

Embedding India in Asia: Reaffirming the Indo-Pacific Concept

The emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a new geopolitical frame of reference is embedded in the growing strategic importance of the maritime domain and the rise of states that have demonstrated the ability to ‘transcend’ their respective subregions. However, the Indo-Pacific remains a concept in its infancy, as evidenced by the fact that it continues to compete with alternative conceptions of regional space in Asia.

Fighting Back: What Governments Can Do about Terrorism, edited by Paul Shemella

The scourge of terrorism is not new. However, its relevance andprominence in public discourse has seen a marked rise after 9/11. Whilea lot of writings concentrated on the immediate aftermath of the 9/11attack and terrorism as linked with Al Qaeda, it also spurred efforts tolook beyond this obvious threat into the larger transnational threat posedto the civilized world.

Statecraft and Intelligence Analysis in the Kautilya-Arthashastra

In the Kautilya-Arthashastra, espionage and other ‘operational’ activities of the secret service—notably ‘active measures’ and ‘covert action’—are addressed often and in detail. In contrast, Kautilya seems to say very little about intelligence analysis, assessment and estimates which provide the basis of strategic planning and grand strategy—and arekey components of statecraft. However, the central proposition of this article is that ‘ideas’ (or meanings) underlying these modern intelligence terms are very much present in the Arthashastra.

Afghan Endgames: Strategy and Policy Choices for America’s Longest War, edited by Hy Rothstein and John Arquilla, New Delhi: Foundation Books, 2013, pp. 244, INR 895

This book has been published at a critical juncture: the United States (US) and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies are preparing to wind up their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and are engaged in charting out the best possible exit strategy. The US and its NATO allies, along with regional nations around Afghanistan, are deliberating over the best possible way to deal with the Afghan situation after 2014.

Wars by Pakistan, by Vikram Munshi

The Pakistan-India relationship has been marked by both peaks and troughs, and scepticism and suspicion of each other’s motives has never been far behind. The two states were one till independence and, more importantly, the two armed forces were one. They had fought wars together before they fought wars with each other.