Doklam and the Indo-China Boundary On 19 December 2017, three days ahead of the scheduled 20th Round of Indo-China border talk between the Indian National Security Advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval, and China’s State Councillor, Yang Jiechi (the details of which are yet to be made public), the daily Times of India reported a statement by China that the Doklam standoff posed a ‘major test’ for the bilateral ties and that lessons should be learnt from it to avoid a similar situation of its kind in the future.1 China’s statement was made in the context of the face-off between Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PL A.K. Bardalai | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
Inside the Enemy’s Computer: Identifying Cyber-Attackers, by Clement Guitton Attribution of cyberattacks is an impending issue in enabling a credible deterrent against both state and non-state actors. It applies equally to cases of a criminal nature as well as to those with implications for national security. The technology underlying cyberspace facilitates anonymity and thus affixing responsibility, that is, attributability, is not merely a technological challenge but a political one as well, especially when nation states have proven prowess in engaging their adversaries in cyberspace. Munish Sharma | January-March 2018 | Journal of Defence Studies
The India-ASEAN Partnership at 25 A stronger partnership and enhanced cooperation should be prioritised by both sides if the full potential of this engagement is to be realised. Ashok Sajjanhar | January 04, 2018 | IDSA Comments
The Food versus Fuel Debate The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has proposed that the terms of the debate be moved from food versus fuel to food and fuel. Ekta Niranjan | January 04, 2018 | Backgrounder
Publication of the National Register of Citizens: a positive step, but what next Since the deportation of illegal migrants is not feasible, the only option before the government is to let them reside in the country on humanitarian grounds but after stripping them of all citizenship rights. Pushpita Das | January 04, 2018 | IDSA Comments
Post Doklam, India needs to watch China’s bullish economics led cultural embrace of South Asia Doklam brought into perspective the fractured relationship between India and China on the global stage and increased fears of China’s growing unilateralism as it inexorably broadens its interests and sphere of influence, especially in South Asia. Shruti Pandalai | January 01, 2018 | Issue Brief
India’s Strategic Options in a Changing Cyberspace Publisher: Pentagon Press The book is structured to perform a role both as a primer to those who wish to understand the strategic issues and key concepts in cyberspace, as well as to provide sufficient pointers to those who wish to have an in-depth understanding on specific issues. Among the major issues examined are the efficacy of the concept of cyber deterrence, the troubled history of norm-making in cyberspace, protecting critical infrastructure from crippling cyber attacks, the viability of Active Cyber Defence as a means of responding to the sheer scale of attacks, and its attendant legal and ethical issues. Emerging technologies and their potential impact on an already dynamic domain are also the subject to scrutiny, as also the various models of public-Private Partnership in cybersecurity around the world. ISBN: 978-93-86618-66-5, Price: ?.746/- E-copy available Cherian Samuel , Munish Sharma | | Book
Asia in international relations: unlearning imperial power relations The discipline of International Relations (IR) is deeply enmeshed in the history, intellectual traditions and agency claims of the West, thus obscuring the contributions from the non-Western world. IR theory fails to take cognisance of the global distribution of the various actors along with their contribution to a heterogeneous and rich discipline. There is a pressing need for a departure from IR’s historic complicity with marginalisation and the silencing of alternative epistemologies, thereby making its process of knowledge production truly global and democratic. Ananya Sharma | January 2018 | Strategic Analysis
Gas Pipelines—Politics and Rivalries In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its ‘World Energy Outlook’ said that the world was entering a ‘Golden Age of Gas’. With its lower carbon-emitting properties, gas seemed poised to claim its rightful place in the global energy mix as a bridge between polluting hydrocarbons and green renewables. Moreover, it has all the ingredients to make it as worthy a contender in the energy geopolitical game as did oil a few decades ago. Shebonti Ray Dadwal , Chithra Purushothaman | January 2018 | Strategic Analysis
Analysing the Impacts of Drug Trafficking on Human Security in Central Asia The international security environment has undergone many changes since the end of the Cold War. There has been a need to adapt the concept of security with the changing conditions and new security situations emerging in different geopolitical locales of the world. The concept of human security gained currency in the wake of international developments in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War. New security threats were identified by scholars and analysts the world over. There was a shift in the way security was conceptualised, i.e. Hamidreza Azizi | January 2018 | Strategic Analysis
