India’s decision to reject US fighter planes is strategic stupidity New Delhi, it is reported, has shortlisted two European vendors for its long-drawn procurement of fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Now, military analysts can have endless debates and even objective opinions on which among the American, European and Russian aircraft is technically superior ...
Engaging the Pakistani army chief is a good idea. Conceding anything is not. In a Pax Indica column in September 2010 I wrote about India’s engagement paradox: New Delhi talks to the powerless but can’t talk to those in power, or vice versa. It’s most obvious in Pakistan. General Ashfaq Kayani is the man calling ...
The Sicilian women who offered this blogger $150m to oppose Anna Hazare An excerpt of my short article in OPEN magazine on the wages of making unpopular points: If the political establishment didn’t know how to respond to Anna Hazare, the mindless thousands who supported him—largely from in front of their television and computer screens— ...
“When the social power is used irresponsibly, or to subvert the constitutional authority, it is hardly distinguishable from terror.” The Maharashtra state government instituted a Commission of Inquiry under Justice P B Sawant, in September 2003 to inquire into allegations of corruption and maladministration against several people, among them Anna Hazare. The Commission submitted its ...
Having a fragile state in the neighbourhood makes it important for you to intervene, but there are structural constraints to your ability to do so My paper, The Paradox of Proximity – India’s approach to fragility in the neighbourhood is the first of a series of papers published by New York University’s Center for International ...
Identifying the source of the threat Excerpt from today’s Pax Indica column at Yahoo!: The military-jihadi complex is a dynamic network of military, militant, radical Islamist and political-economic structures that pursues a set of domestic and foreign policies to ensure its own survival and relative dominance. What does the military-jihadi complex comprise of? Obviously, it ...
The US-Pakistan relationship is fraying but not yet broken So the New York Times reports that “it is increasingly apparent that (the United States and Pakistan) have differing, even irreconcilable, aims in Afghanistan.” With the Afghan endgame looming, suspicion is overwhelming faint cooperation between the United States and Pakistan, as each side seeks to secure ...
The men in uniform can play a useful role in foreign policy Excerpts from today’s Business Standard column: India does not engage in military diplomacy in any meaningful form. This is part of the reason why India finds itself in a bind with respect to Pakistan, where it needs to engage the real power centre ...
Jammu & Kashmir needs a guerilla development plan Excerpts from my DNA column: The business of manufacturing grievances, operated by the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, involves both FDI and FII. Provocateurs and hardcore separatists act as the focus of violent unrest, mobilising young people using old methods and new. Motivated or excitable sections ...
The Indian National Interest Review Before we even realised it, Pragati is into its fifth year. Some changes were in order. We’ve revamped the magazine in size and style to make it easier to read, especially on digital devices such as the iPad. The page size is smaller and Aditya Dipankar and Anuj Agrawal, our ...