Let My People Know: The Incredible Story of Middle East Peace—and What Lies Ahead: Aryeh Lightstone, New York, Encounter Books, 2022 No one better than a representative assigned the task to put the wheels of the Abraham Accords in motion could give a bird’s eye view of the events leading to signing the Accords and the aftermath. Aryeh Lightstone’s narration of the story surrounding the Accords gains credibility as he was part of high-level discussions on the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ vision. Lightstone was Chief-of-Staff to David Friedman, who served as US Ambassador to Israel between 2017 and 2021. He was the liaison between the States parties to the Accords and was in charge of facilitating the Accords’ implementation. B. Poornima | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Deep State Continuum in Pakistan and Implications for India: Jyoti M. Pathania, New Delhi, KW Publishers, 2022 In a country like Pakistan, where none of its Prime Ministers could ever complete a full five-year term in office, the role of the so-called ‘deep State’ — a term used as a euphemism for its Army—in exercising disproportionate control over the affairs of the country—has often been highlighted. Adil Rasheed | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
India as Kingmaker: Status Quo or Revisionist Power: Michael O. Slobodchikoff and Aakriti A. Tandon, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2022 The two authors of the book under review are academics at separate campuses in the United States, with the first having to his credit previously published books in international and strategic affairs. In their collaborative effort, the authors have chosen to draw attention to the perceived challenge being posed to the existing world order—a creation of the Western alliance led by the United States. Important members of the alliance—Britain, France, Germany and Japan—favour continuity of the existing order. They have been labelled as status quo powers. Sunil Khatri | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Innovate to Dominate: The Rise of the Chinese Techno-Security State: Tai Ming Cheung, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2022 The outcome of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held in October 2022, was on predictable lines. It was no surprise that President Xi Jinping was chosen CPC supremo for an unprecedented third time, defying the two-term limit set by Deng Xiaoping to prevent a single person from gaining absolute and autocratic power like Mao Zedong. Xi, considered the most powerful leader in China since Mao, is determined to put China on the ‘rejuvenation’ path and attain superpower status for the Middle Kingdom by mid-century. Laxman Kumar Behera | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Efficiency in Emergency: A Perception Study of Hierarchical Versus Flat Organizational Structures for Joint Disaster Response in the Bay of Bengal Region Large-scale disasters have far-reaching impacts that transcend national borders, making a coordinated, “one region-one response” approach essential, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bay of Bengal region has recognized this need and is actively developing structures for regional cooperation, including in disaster management. Rajat Mohan Bhatt , Deepali Garge | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Blame Game on Article 370: Patel, Nehru, and Ayyangar On 5 August 2019, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a bold decision and made drastic changes to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, thus changing the legal status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This further sparked a debate over the real architect of the Article. There has been a lot of debate and discussion around Article 370. Article 370 provided a special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The debate around Article 370 is highly political, biased, and targeted. Pavan Kumar | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Economic Rationale for the Proposed Bridge Between India and Sri Lanka: An Analytical Perspective The Governments of India and Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build a bridge across the Palk Strait in July 2002 to join the island nation with the mainland of South Asia by road and rail. The objective of this article is to highlight the likely impact the proposed bridge would have on trade in goods and services and travel between the two countries and beyond. Gayasha Sathsarani Samarakoon | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Emerging Dynamics Between the Chinese State and Big-Tech: The Case of Alibaba The past few years have been tumultuous for the Chinese State and big-tech relations. The ground reality for the big-tech internet companies in China has transformed from being indulgent and overreaching to scrutiny and crackdown. This article attempts to analyse the dynamics between the Chinese State and big tech, taking Alibaba’s journey as a case study. Megha Shrivastava | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
Iran’s Strategic Behaviour Against ISIS: Religio-Cultural Context of Shrines and Martyrdom The killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020 again brought the religio-cultural significance of ‘martyrdom’ into limelight in Iran. He got recognized as the ‘Defender-Martyr of Holy Shrine’ given his role against ISIS in protecting the Shi’i holy shrines. This article analyses the relationship between ‘shrines and ‘martyrdom’ in Iran’s strategy against ISIS. Shafat Yousuf , Rafiullah Azmi | January-February 2023 | Strategic Analysis
China’s Bagamoyo Port Project: Geo-economic and Geo-political Imperatives for India Tanzania is a strategically located country on the eastern coast of Africa. It is an important node of China’s Maritime Silk Road project and constitutes a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the BRI, China had envisaged that Bagamoyo would be the largest port in all of Africa, supplemented by a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), and a trans-continental railway line, making Tanzania a hub of commerce in East Africa. Sibapada Rath | January-March 2023 | Journal of Defence Studies
