Strategic Analysis

Saudi Arabia: King Salman Faces the 21st Century

Since assuming the throne on January 23, 2015 following the death of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s new monarch, King Salman, seems to have set about the task of shaking up the ultraconservative kingdom. The punishment or pardoning of Raef Badawi became the litmus test of the new Saudi monarch’s reign as the blogger’s sentence coincided with the last days of the ailing King Abdullah and King Salman was compelled to face his personal past as promoter of Islamic fundamentalism abroad.

Future of India–China Boundary: Leadership Holds the Key?

Will India and China resolve their boundary dispute during the tenure of Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping? The strategic communities in both countries are optimistic, particularly after the high tension prevailing along the border during President Xi Jinping’s tour of India in September 2014. Both Prime Minister Modi and President Xi are seen as decisive leaders.1 Both are expected to hold power in their respective countries for a few years to come. Personalities and personas matter greatly for scoring political brownie points. The boundary dispute, quintessentially, is political in nature.

China’s ‘Maritime Bases’ in the IOR: A Chronicle of Dominance Foretold

After a successful visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Colombo in March, Indian policy elite are hopeful that the new Sri Lankan government will roll-back some of the geopolitical concessions made by the Rajapaksa regime to Beijing, thereby restoring India’s primacy in its near neighbourhood. India’s policy elite are hopeful that Maithripala Sirisena, the new president, will roll back some of the geopolitical concessions made by his predecessor to Beijing, thereby restoring Indian primacy in its near neighbourhood.

China’s Asia Strategy under President Xi Jinping

China has reoriented its foreign policy strategy since Xi Jinping became president. This could significantly recast China’s relations with Asian countries. The process that began with Xi Jinping’s coming to power in 2012–2013 reached, in a sense, a definitive moment, with the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs held in Beijing in November 2014.

Visas: How They Work—An India–Bangladesh Case Study

A visa is issued to facilitate an individual’s travel to another country in a regulated way. There are agreements between some countries on a no-visa regime; however, most countries do follow some sort of visa system. Typically, a visa allows a person to travel to the destination country as far as the port of entry (airport, seaport or land border crossing) and advises the immigration officer to allow the visitor to enter the country.

Sandeep Chakravorty , Sumit Chaturvedi |
May 2015 |
Strategic Analysis

Army: The Be-All or End-All of Pakistan Politics?

Witness to three fully fledged coups, Pakistan’s beleaguered political history has been consistently punctured with prolonged stints of military rule. Although a democratic state in principle, it is the episodic rule by the military that has inflicted Pakistan’s political destiny and shaped its political culture and practices. In May 2013, there was a rather peaceful transition—the first of its kind—from one popularly elected incumbent government to another.

Jonathan Matusitz, Symbolism in Terrorism: Motivation, Communication, and Behavior, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Maryland, 2014

Symbolism in Terrorism: Motivation, Communication, and Behavior explores an important but under-represented aspect of terrorism: the meanings of both physical and non-physical symbols in terrorism, and how culture, belief systems and internal and external forces come to create such symbolic meanings and processes. Jonathan Matusitz, the author of the book, manages to ‘unpack’ this clearly through 16 chapters that each take a different angle in explaining the origins and reasons of various forms of terrorism (both past and current).

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Aspiration and Ambivalence: Strategies and Realities of Counterinsurgency and State Building in Afghanistan, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC

After 13 years of international engagement, political and security scenarios appear to be uncertain in Afghanistan. The unity government formed through a power-sharing agreement between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah faces multiple external and internal challenges. Analysts remain sceptical about the future of the government itself.

Rajat Kathuria and Sanjana Joshi (eds.), Forty Years of India–Korea Relations and Looking Ahead, Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2014

The year 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between India and South Korea. Even though during the Cold War, India–South Korea relations had to overcome several hiccups, they started flourishing following the end of the Cold War. In fact, in the last two decades the relationship has witnessed tremendous growth in a wide range of areas, including economic, political, socio-cultural and security. Unfortunately, not much work has been undertaken to deal with India–South Korea relations in detail.

Alan J. Kuperman, Nuclear Terrorism and Global Nuclear Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, 2013

Alan J. Kuperman’s edited volume Nuclear Terrorism and Global Nuclear Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium explores the prospects and challenges involved in the process of global elimination of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). Global commerce in HEU poses the inherent dangers of nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Recognising the above, the volume asserts that, ‘given the vast majority of non-weapons HEU commerce persist[ing]’ (p. 3), the international community needs to undertake concerted measures to minimise the dangers of HEU commerce.