India should resist condoning any electoral democracy that is not secular. States and civil societies usually perceive external events through their domestic values and histories. In recent years, India's discourse has highlighted the importance of democracy as a factor worth cherishing in its own right in different regions. Although Delhi has disavowed a foreign policy that promotes... Continue Reading
Part 2: Interpreting Indian Behaviour. For part one click here. The primary strategic objective of the Nehru regime, even as the dispute deteriorated after 1959, was to avoid a frontal collision with China. The more interesting and perhaps central question, therefore, is why did India find itself on the Himalayan battlefield in October 1962. In retrospect, this author can discern... Continue Reading
China's way into the Sino-Indian War. In a recent Global Times article, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences writes, “Mao wanted to wake him (Nehru) up from the superpowers’ influence by giving him a heavy punch, so that he would come to his senses and end the war.” This rather blunt quote really sums up the war from the Chinese perspective: 1962 was... Continue Reading
How should India position itself amid the strategic bargaining between the US and Iran? Recent weeks have tested India’s West Asia policy with India being compelled to juggle its national interests and simultaneously exude a “responsible stakeholder” image. India’s UN vote on Syria buttressed the latter. New Delhi’s defence of its energy and broader equation... Continue Reading
It has become customary to assert that the centre of gravity of world politics has shifted to the Asia-Pacific region. The ascent of several regional states such as China and India has made this notion almost indisputable. But is this popular cliché crowding out attention on geopolitical issues elsewhere? Recent months have shown that West Asia remains at the fulcrum of world politics... Continue Reading
US success in Afghanistan requires a change in strategy. Last week’s Bonn Conference was another lost opportunity to promote a genuine multilateral approach to Afghanistan. For the past decade, and especially after President Obama took office, the West has pinned its entire Afghan strategy on Pakistan. Yet, despite spending US$ 386 billion and losses of 1,774 lives since 2001,... Continue Reading
Analysis on what is required to determine the political will and economic might of nations. ARVIND Subramanian’s “Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance” has renewed interest in measuring the potential of emerging powers. Subramanian argues that projections of GDP, trade and creditor status make China’s future dominance inevitable. The... Continue Reading
