Asia Pacific – The Great Game and India

What the Pivot Means Before the heat of US elections and Chinese transition of power cooled off,  the well times East Asia Summit and the ASEAN meet  at Phnom Phen has focused world attention on SE Asia.  With President Obama,  Prime Minister Wen Zia Bao and  Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh participating in the conference, [...]

Governance and Governance

Governance is an outcome of a system. It is a yardstick to measure the performance of a system/organ of a body. Performance and governance-deficit of a system are inversely proportional to each other. Its product is a constant. This means if one is increasing the other is automatically decreasing. Decreasing performance means increasing governance deficit.

West versus Rest

The world is no longer unipolar .  A cluster of powers is emerging now .While US remains pre-eminent but it is not the same hyper power as before. As predicted earlier by SAI , alliances are now being formed with or against US. An analysis of basic global power equations indicates  “West versus Rest”  clusters [...]

India’s Military Modernization: Plans and Strategic Underpinnings

India’s military modernization, however slow it might be, will lead to a qualitative increase in defense cooperation with the United States and other strategic partners by enhancing the capabilities of the Indian armed forces for joint coalition operations, if they are in India’s national interest. Overall, India will gradually acquire the capability to act as a net provider of security in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. This positive development will allow strategic partners like the United States to reduce their military commitments to the region to a limited extent. Hence, India’s modernization efforts will enhance and further cement U.S.-India relations.

Opting for Lean and Mean Armies

Even if Indian forces induct technology aggressively, the nature of threats, terrain and multiplicity of tasks call for a large standing army, albeit technologically matching its prime opponents at least. Insurgencies require boots, as the Americans learnt in Afghanistan. For Indians, with insurgencies being within the country, the tolerance for collateral damage is zero, with boots replacing firepower. Numbers also remain relevant in the Indian context till budgets allow a technology leap.

Syrian Spring Rolls Over

India’s vote in favour of the west also antagonizes Russia. In the choice between the West and the rest, India has chosen pragmatism over principles. China and Russia are noticing these repeated Indian efforts to protect its short term economic goals and efforts to shore up support for the UNSC with concern. By siding with the West we have opened up another vista in playing balancing games between US and SCO.

The TIME Cover – The Underachiever: India Needs a Reboot

We should overlook this agenda driven yellow journalism, and, instead, put our house in order soonest for our own national good.

Putting Connectivity in Place to Act East

India and Myanmar have turned a new leaf with Dr Man Mohan Singh’s visit to Myanmar. As Myanmar begins its journey towards democratisation and opening up to the world, there is a growing interest by China and the West too in investing in the geo strategic, political and economic potential of Myanmar. The US has [...]

Looking East: The Gateway to South East Asia

The track record of Indian foreign policy in tackling with the Eastern neighbours is at best short sighted and mired with domestic political considerations rather than having a long term perspective. Time is running short as India dithers and China moves at a canter to occupy the strategic space vacated or not occupied by India. The returns of exploiting the gateway to South East Asia can not be bargained politically.The government has to build domestic consensus and speed up its international initiatives for the larger strategic, economic and political good.

President Obama’s National Defense Guidance: Forward to the Past

Long War Journal (Editor’s Note: This is the way US intends fighting wars of the future. We had put this strategy in context in our earlier post Obama’s New Defence Strategy and Asia. The guidelines add to some clarity and we shall look forward to the nuts and bolts of these guidelines in February 2012 [...]

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