Publication

The Boko Haram insurgency has emerged as one of the greatest threats to human security in Africa, and the Lake Chad region in particular. This is a region with a total area of 427,500 km2, which covers/ Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The movement known as Boko Haram (Western education is forbidden) originated in Nigeria in 2002. The official name of the movement is Jama’atu Ahlis Suna Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad).

• Samuel Oyewole |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

Humanitarian cyber operations would allow democratic states to utilise cyber operations as a humanitarian intervention to capture information and create a foundation for decision making for collective international action supported by humanitarian international law. This follows the legal doctrine of responsibility to protect, which relies first on the nation state itself but when the state fails to protect its citizens, then the international community can act, ignoring the repressive or failed state’s national sovereignty.

• Jan Kallberg |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

Xi Jinping’s new reformist approach of 2013 is a close reflection of Deng Xiaoping’s prescription of 1978. The Chinese political leadership is tightening its political grip and loosening economic control. China has a tradition of leadership being an economic rightist and a political leftist at the same time. The thesis of Xi Jinping is based upon the conception that one should not use post-reform history to negate the pre-reform years. It also says that one should not ‘exaggerate’ Mao Zedong’s mistakes but should acknowledge his contributions.

• Keshab Chandra Ratha , Sushanta Kumar Mahapatra |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

The contemporary strategic and political environment has gone through tremendous changes in comparison to the context in which the 1950 treaty was signed. The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s August 2014 visit to Nepal, the first by an Indian prime minister in 17 years, has rekindled the hope of improving Nepal–India relations, including revision of the 1950 treaty. Against this backdrop, this article argues that without understanding India’s strategic, security-related and political concerns, revision of the 1950 treaty is highly unlikely.

• Rohit Karki , Lekhnath Paudel |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

The importance of nuclear security in Asia needs to be focused upon in view of the emerging challenges of nuclear proliferation, growing nuclear arsenals, expanding civilian nuclear energy programmes, weak export controls, zones of domestic instability and terrorism in several regions within the continent. This article focuses on the factors that pose potential risks to nuclear security in Asia. It emphasises the prevailing factors endangering the security of nuclear and radiological materials in Asia.

• Reshmi Kazi |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

This article looks at India’s interests and strategy in the South China Sea (SCS). First, it highlights India’s maritime interests and discusses the relevance of the SCS to these interests. It then examines some key ingredients of India’s evolving policy initiatives in the region. The article argues that with a considerable expansion of India’s engagement with the South China Sea littoral states, India appears to be genuinely emerging as an indispensable element in the strategic discourse of this region.

• Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

The concept of national security has often been taken to merely connote the preservation of sovereignty, territorial integrity and internal stability with the focus on the coercive power of the state. In today’s complex and interdependent world faced with many non traditional threats like pandemics, climate change, etc it must, however, be seen in a more holistic manner.

• Satish Chandra , Rahul K. Bhonsle |
• July 2015 |
• Strategic Analysis

While the attack on the chemical warehouse in France and the accident in the Taiwanese park are not cases of chemical terrorism in a classical sense, they can be analysed against the backdrop of a ‘chemical incident’.

• Ajey Lele |
• June 30, 2015 |
• IDSA Comments

In China’s foreign policy setting, the logic of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘history’ are employed or applied selectively as is evident from its reservation on India’s oil exploration in the South China Sea and its own plans to implement the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir despite India’s reservations.

• Rumel Dahiya , Jagannath P. Panda |
• June 29, 2015 |
• Policy Brief

Do the successors of Monnet have the moral strength to move in the right direction rather than act like petty minded accountants who want to balance the books at any cost?

• K. P. Fabian |
• June 29, 2015 |
• IDSA Comments