Publication - MP-IDSA

Influence of Alfred Thayer Mahan on Japanese Maritime Strategy

The Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) resurgence during the Meiji Restoration was challenged by the absence of maritime capability and an equivalent strategic underpinning. In turn, the IJN reached out to Western navies to develop its capability and establish its maritime moorings. The musings of Alfred Thayer Mahan served to fill this void. The IJN studied Mahan’s tenets and became particularly fixated on certain ideas which fuelled their tactics and hardened their war plans.

United Nations Peace Operations: Personal Experiences and Reflections

We are passing through a decisive stage in the history of the international system. The threat of war between great states, or nuclear confrontation between major powers, is well behind us and, in fact, fading in our memory. However, new and diverse forms of threats, some clear and present, others only dimly perceived, are testing our resolve and questioning the validity of our existing mechanisms. Developments at the international level over the last two decades have exposed deep divisions within the membership of the United Nations (UN) over fundamental policies on peace and security.

NRC Will Make India-Bangladesh Relations More Sustainable

The issue of illegal migration in India-Bangladesh relationship cannot be swept under the carpet. It will be better if both sides look at the issue dispassionately especially when the trust levels are high.

Anand Kumar |
January 08, 2020 |
IDSA Comments

Mitigating Fear and Regaining Trust: How to Understand China’s Response to COVID-19

Introduction There is a long history of human fears toward infectious disease and it doesn’t necessarily disappear with the development of medical science. The ancestral fear toward infectious diseases plays… Continue reading Mitigating Fear and Regaining Trust: How to Understand China’s Response to COVID-19

XIE Chao |
January-June 2020 |
CBW Magazine

Italy’s COVID-19 Crisis and Response

After eight weeks of lockdown, Italy has gradually started to reopen. Positive cases and death numbers have begun to decline, albeit slowly, and caution, social-distancing, patience, and perseverance will still… Continue reading Italy’s COVID-19 Crisis and Response

Chiara De Cuia |
January-June 2020 |
CBW Magazine

The Indian Military and Social Change

Over the years, the Indian Army has been engaged in two important roles: external defence and the maintenance of internal security. As the Army’s emphasis has shifted from the latter to the former its structure and organization has changed; for structure and strategic role are immutably interlinked. New equipment has made the army more mobile, it is stationed primarily in forward positions, and recruitment is no longer based upon political loyalty.

In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba

The basic goal of states in an anarchical international system is survival. One of the best ways to ensure survival is to maximize security through self-help. States engage in self-help in a panoply of ways, like military modernization and arms build-ups. Pakistan’s collaboration with the menagerie of non-state actors can be seen as a self-help strategy for countering a conventionally superior India, while at the same time pursuing vital domestic and foreign security objectives.

Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy since 1949

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undertaken its most elaborate reforms since the past 30 years under President Xi Jinping. The current PLA restructuring since 2016 aligns with China’s broader regional and global interests. President Xi has set 2020 as the deadline for the PLA to achieve mechanization, 2035 for informatisation and 2049 to make the PLA into a world-class army. Just a year before PLA’s first deadline, M. Taylor Fravel’s book Active Defense is a timely intervention to understand China’s changing military approaches and strategies.

Suyash Desai |
January 2020 |
Strategic Analysis

By More than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia-Pacific since 1783

In the ascription of causality in international relations (IR), there is either deliberate action or historical contingency. Historical contingency is an element that cannot be accounted for; however, deliberate action is accounted for and ascribed to planning or strategy. Even with strategically planned deliberate action, there is an element of uncertainty of whether the intended effect will be achieved or not. This is due to intended effects of strategy being mediated by situational variables and contingencies. These characteristics form the underlying implicit nature of strategy.

Kautilya and Non-Western IR theory

Kautilya’s Arthashastra, after its rediscovery in 1905, became an important reference point for the nationalist discourse in India. The treatise, with its foundational roots in the third-century BCE, helped the nationalists discover self-esteem and confidence. It was instrumental in breaking the mental barriers forged by the colonialist discourse that instilled an intellectual and political inferiority among Indians. Arthashastra, though set in different time and socio-political context, became a proof of India’s glorious but forgotten tradition of political and economic thought.