Oct-Dec

Essays
The Politicisation of WHO by Arvind Gupta

Building a Sustainable Ecology - Housing and Architecture in Mumbai by Samarth Das

Reforms in Agriculture: Promise and Challenges by Atul Sarma and Shyam Sunder

Articles
Responding to COVID 19: India’s trade restrictions and the World Trade Organization by Varad Choudhary, Rudraksh Lakra and Ayan Gupta

Influence Operations by China by DN Mathur

Perilous Deterrent: Pandemic and the Consequent Re-evaluation of India’s National Security by Souradeep Sen

Book Reviews
The Bangladesh Story - Travails and Triumphs by Pratim Ranjan Bose

Trump, Xi and the Making of the New Cold War by Prerna Gandhi

Essay
Nursing the economy back to health, post-Covid by V. Anantha Nageswaran

Articles
World Order in the Post Covid 19: Modi and Kennedy parallel challenges by Umberto Sulpasso

Design Intervention to Augment Non-Traditional Security by Mihir Bholey

Indian and Russian Engagement in Eurasia: New Areas of Cooperation by NIRMALA JOSHI

How Turkey uses Libya to achieve its foreign policy objectives by Dr Yatharth Kachiar

Wilayat-e-Internet: Islamic State Cyber Caliphate by Anurag Sharma

Book Review
China and the South China Sea Imbroglio by Teshu Singh

Apr-Jun

Essays
Challenges to the Nuclear order by Arvind Gupta

Pakistan Once Again - With Terror, Lies and Bomb by Sheel Kant Sharma

Colloquiumes
Indian Nuclear Posture and National Security by Balraj Nagal

Voices of Change in Indian Nuclear Doctrine –an Analysis
by V K Saxena

Articles
On the Unravelling of Global Nuclear Order by R.Rajaraman

Changing Nature of Deterrence: The Challenge of Asymmetric Threats by Rajaram Nagappa & N Ramamoorthy

Global Nuclear Developments 2017-2020: Implications for India’s Nuclear Policy by Manpreet Sethi

Pakistan’s Nuclear and Missile Capabilities: Implications for India by Dr Shalini Chawla

Book Reviews
A Rare Insight into India’s Nuclear Programme by Sheel Kant Sharma

South Asia in the Second Nuclear Age by Jaideep Chanda

Tackling Deterrence Uncertainty in South Asia. by Souradeep Sen

Jan-Mar

Essays
BIMSTEC as a regional organization: Déjà vu or new beginning? by Shambhu Ram Simkhada

BIMSTEC and its Future: Connecting South and Southeast Asia
by Tariq Karim

BIMSTEC and S & T Cooperation: A Long Way Ahead
by Kapil Patil

Submarines Gain Precedence in Bay of Bengal Naval Order of Battle
by Vijay Sakhuja

Articles
Regional Connectivity and India's BIMSTEC Policy by Constantino Xavier & Riya Sinha

Bangladesh beyond Borders: Its Trans-Regional Experience in BIMSTEC by Niloy Ranjan Biswas

Sri Lanka and BIMSTEC: Past, Present and Prospects for the Future by Bhagya Senaratne

A New BIMSTEC? : Reforms, Possibilities and Complexities by Angshuman Choudhury

Report
VIF-BIMSTEC Security Dialogue by SreeradhaDatta

Book Discussion
The Borderlands and Borders of the Indian Subcontinent by Dilip K Chakrabarti, Abanti Bhattacharya , K. Warikoo

Book Reviews
Exploring new avenues of regionalism in South Asia
by Alakh Ranjan

Conflicting Identities: Travails of Regionalism in Asia by Anurag Sharma

Jul-Sep

Essays
Regional and Sub-Regional Constructs within the Indo-Pacific by Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa

Essay
An Australian view of the Indo Pacific – three big problems and one way forward by Michael Shoebridge

Essaay
Unpacking the Trump Administration’s New Indo-Pacific Strategy by Jeff M Smith

Articles
China’s Multilateral Gambit in South Asia by ASOKE KUMAR MUKERJI

The Geo-political Underpinnings of the "Open and Free Indo-Pacific" Concept by Baladas Ghoshal

Importance of East Africa in Indo-Pacific by NEHA SINHA

Geopolitics of the South Pacific and Opportunities for India by Maitrayee Shilpa Kishore

Book Reviews
The Indo-Pacific in India’s imagination by Amruta Karambelkar

India and Asia’s Changing Balance of Power by Manish

Indo-Pacific – Diverse Perspectives by Udayan Das

Apr-Jun

Essays
Domestic Knowledge Product: Enhancing Wealth, Welfare and National Security by Umberto Sulpasso

Disruptive Technologies and India’s Military Modernisation by J P Singh

Rising Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security by Durga Prakash Devarakonda

Aarticles
Strengthening Food Security through Technologies by Suhas P Wani, Mukund D Patil & Dhirendra Singh

Decision Intelligence for the Indian Agriculture Sector by Roger Moser

Higher Education Ecosystem’s Preparedness for IR 4.0: An Indian Perspective by K. K. Aggarwal & Avinash C. Sharma

Analyzing Predictions about The Future of Manufacturing and Technology and Their Extension to India... by Alimah Rehan

India's Need for Strategic Minerals by AJEY LELE

Blockchain as the funding foundation for Indian MSME Sector by Pallav Kumar Singh

Book Reviews
Technological Revolution and the Emerging Military Environment by Anand V.

Humanity in the Age of Data by Prerna Gandhi

Future of War by Anurag Sharma

Jan-Mar

Essays
India in an Age of Uncertainty and Instability by Satish Chandra

Towards a Rule Based Order in the Indo-Pacific by Arvind Gupta

Assessing India’s Nuclear Doctrine by Amit Sharma

Supreme Court ruling on Gilgit Baltistan: A legacy of unfulfilled promises by Prateek Joshi

Articles
Tibet was Never Part of China Before 1950: Examples of Authoritative pre-1949 Chinese Documents that Prove It by Hon-Shiang LAU

China’s Policies of Exploitation in Mekong River Region by Vinod Anand

Anti-Terror Laws in India: An Appraisal by Ramanand Garge

Mitigating the threat in space: Chinese military space capability and India’s response by Rahul Krishna & Aradhya Shandilya

Book Reviews
Coping with the Nuclear Shadow by Arvind Gupta

The Sardar’s Legacy by Shantanu Chakrabarti

2018

Colloquium
U.S.- China Rivalry - Global Impact by P K Basu & Pinaki Bhattacharya

Essays
Understanding China's foreign policy in Xi Jinping’s “New Era” by Arvind Gupta

Can India and China have a Mutually Beneficial Relationship? by Anil Wadhwa

China’s Growing Presence in the Indian Ocean ~ India’s Options by Satish Soni

Articles
China's Role in the United Nations: Utilitarianism Overshadows Universal Values by ASOKE MUKHERJI

PLA Reforms under Xi and their Security Implications by S L Narasimhan

China’s Green Innovation Strategy under Xi Jinping by Avinash Godbole

China’s `Mass Incidents’: Declining Numbers or Hidden Data? by Gunjan singh

Book Reviews
Comprehensive Work on Security by Satish Chandra

Cracking the ‘Fortune Cookie’ of Chinese Power by Rana Divyank Chaudhary

Musharraf and the Price of Kargil by Prateek Joshi

Documents
Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts and Unite as one in Looking to the Future,1978

Remarks Made During an Inspection Tour of Shanghai, 1991

Jan-Aug

Colloquium
Two-Front War: What Does it Imply? by N C Vij, R K Dhowan, K K Nohwar & Krishan Varma

Essay
Securing the Nation: The Indispensability of Institutional Synergy
by Arvind Gupta

Articles
Ruling from the Shadows: The Political Predominance of the Military in Pakistan by Tilak Devasher

CPEC at Three: Mapping Progress, Stakeholders and Sustainability by Prateek Joshi

Transition in the Middle East: Transition to What? by James M. Dorsey

"Quad” from the Japanese Perspective by Yasushi Tomiyama

Looking Further East: India’s Engagement with the Pacific Island States by Asha Sundaramurthy

Book Reviews
My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir by Jagmohan, Allied Publishers, 1991 by Satish Chandra

The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace by A. S. Dulat, Aditya Sinha & Asad Durrani, Harper Collins, 2018 by C D Sahay & Prateek Joshi

India’s National Security: Annual Review 2016-17, Edited by Satish Kumar, Routledge, 2018 by Arvind Gupta

India, China, and the World: A Connected History by Tansen Sen, Oxford University Press, 2018 by Gunjan singh

Documents
Statement to Parliament on Nuclear Tests in Pokhran:Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 27/05/1998

“Evolution of India’s Nuclear Policy” Paper laid in Parliament by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 27/05/1998

Oct-Dec. 2021

CONTENTS

Editor’s Note
The Gathering Storm
Sujit Dutta

Essays
Afghanistan: The Taliban Takeover and its Strategic Fallout
Gautam Mukhopadhaya

Utopia and Desire: Biden’s Retreat from Afghanistan
Umberto Sulpasso

What Does the Chinaman Think?
Gautam Banerjee

Technology Ecosystem & National Security
B.M. Suri

Articles
Terror Financing in Kashmir
Abhinav Pandya

Reality of Democracy in India: Contesting False Western Narrative
A. Surya Prakash

The Great Western Social Churn: India Caught in the Crossshairs
Abhijit Iyer-Mitra

Intelligence and Big Tech
Devsena Mishra

Policy Brief
Roadmap for India’s Dominance in Global Shipbuilding
Bhaskar Sengupta and Shantanu Bose

Book Reviews
Indus Basin Uninterrupted
Satish Chandra

Educational Reforms in Saudi Arabia
Hirak J. Das

About The Issue
This issue of National Security explores critical themes in India's emerging security environment by some of India's leading experts. Former Ambassador in Kabul, Gautam Mukhopadhaya in his lead essay discusses the strategic implications of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and warns that a period of conflict both within the country and in the wider region is likely. Offering a different perspective, Umberto Sulpasso argues that the rapid US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a necessary strategy-- reminiscent of the Roman empire's withdrawal from the East-- that frees the US from a war bereft of idealism and therefore unwinnable. Joe Biden can now focus on other urgent domestic and global strategic tasks.

Abhinav Pandya's study focuses on the financing of terror operations in J&K, while Gautam Banerjee warns that Communist China's declared objective of capturing large tracts along India's Northern and Eastern border states poses a serious threat to India. B.M. Suri emphasises that India's security challenges shall continue to demand development of indigenous high technologies and manufacturing based on them.

A. Surya Prakash and Abhijit Iyer-Mitra undertake fact-based critiques of the Western liberal-left campaign against the Modi government and expose the deep intellectual problems and ideological biases that characterise it. Similarly, Devsena Mishra's critique of global Big-Tech's operations points to their roots in the intelligence and defence department's funding of Silicon Valley Start-ups whose commercial success is based on information gathering, thereby posing a threat to India's national security.

A highlight of this issue is a major policy brief by two former senior naval officers, Bhaskar Sengupta and Shantanu Bose, that outlines a strategy to build a world class shipbuilding industry in India to advance its vital industrial, commercial, and military aims. Equally noteworthy is a long review essay by Former Deputy National Security Advisor, Ambassador Satish Chandra on the making of the Indus Water Treaty and its implications for India.

Editor’s Note
The Gathering Storm

Dark clouds that have been gathering on the Indian security horizon since China’s unprovoked aggression in Ladakh last year, have deepened in the past months with the armed overthrow of the elected, internationally recognised Afghan government. The Taliban -- which ironically, seized power with the connivance of the war-weary US, and was actively backed by America’s nemesis China and Russia -- is a conglomerate of the most conservative, Islamic extremists, with many that are sitting in the new cabinet internationally designated as terrorists. The leading powers responsible for maintaining global law, order and security, handed over power and the fate of the hapless Afghan citizens, especially the women and the minorities, to this illegitimate and repressive force. The withdrawal plan was scripted at Doha by the Trump Administration and received the stamp of approval by the liberal Biden Administration in February this year. The US was desperate to leave the country that had trapped it in a long insurgency. It had very good domestic and international reasons to do so. American withdrawal was desirable even for the Afghan people who needed to shape their own fate and end the two-decade long civil war. But the US withdrew its forces with little thought for a post-withdrawal transition plan or the immediate politico-security consequences of a sudden and chaotic departure for the Afghan people and neighbouring countries such as India.

The Afghan Crisis
The security challenges for India and the region have as a result grown manyfold with the entire Pakistan-Afghanistan belt opened-up for jehadi and Islamabad-backed terror operations. The spurt in terrorist attacks on civilians and minorities in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan based and trained Islamic terrorists in recent days, and the appeal of religious extremism among some sections in the State are testament to what is portended. The politico-ideological extremism of a victorious Taliban feeds into the conservative Sunni Islamists and terrorist groups everywhere, breathing fresh life into the Haqqani network, Al Qaida, ISIS and such other kindred armed extremist groups. It raises hopes in them that it is possible to succeed if a secure haven is available. For the Taliban, the Haqqani network, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Al Qaida and a host of other outfits, the principal benefactor has been Pakistan, which enjoys the backing of China and its diplomatic cover.

The US has always been inordinately indulgent towards its one-time close military ally despite knowing that the Taliban and its partners had a safe sanctuary in Pakistan. In fact, the Taliban had been nurtured, armed and protected by it. It is not a secret that Pakistan has been waging a covert hybrid war against Afghanistan and India, and undermining the US war effort, by using the armed extremist groups. Yet, astonishingly, it continued to receive US largesse and diplomatic silence ... silence because America needed to secure the overt ‘cooperation’ of Islamabad for providing access to American supplies for its forces in land-locked Afghanistan.

India’s former Ambassador in Kabul, - Gautam Mukhopadhaya, in his incisive overview of the strategic implications of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan for the region -- carried in this issue of the journal -- foresees a period of conflict and power struggle within the regime, and a robust return of international terrorism. He holds American soft policy towards Pakistan’s hybrid war spanning over two decades as a major reason for the debacle in Kabul. Scholar Umberto Sulpasso, on the contrary, perceives the gains in his commentary. He argues that Joe Biden’s rapid withdrawal, notwithstanding the immediate problems, is a winning strategic move that releases the US from a war bereft of idealism or ‘utopia’ and therefore unwinnable. In a related study, analyst Abhinav Pandya, based on several years of fieldwork, explores terror financing in Jammu and Kashmir—bulk of it coming through Pakistan to the Islamic extremists and separatists in India’s unfortunate border State.

If peace, security and stability are to be achieved and a regional and humanitarian crisis contained, Afghanistan would need an inclusive government, with the representation of all major segments of its society and politics, constitutional safeguards for the equal rights of women and minorities, and a break on all ties with terror and extremism. India is working for such an outcome in close consultations with the United States and its other Quad partners, Russia and the Central Asian states, and multilaterally at the UN, G-20, SCO, etc. It has simultaneously backed urgent humanitarian aid to reach the Afghan people. The Afghan crisis will clearly continue to fester and engage India and the world in the months ahead.

The China Threat
While the Afghan developments pose a serious threat to the security and stability of the region, and both complicate and serve as a strategic wild card, they do not detract from the wider strategic challenge flowing from the ongoing shift in the global balance of power. The rise of an expansionist and aggressive China is posing a growing threat to India and the leading Indo-Pacific democracies --the US, Japan and Australia, as also Taiwan. Its aggressive behaviour also challenges a rule-based global order that most nations desire. The Indian Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar--articulating the rising concern about the continued military build-up and provocations across the Line of Actual Control by the PLA and its refusal to either abide by the existing military and diplomatic agreements with India or peacefully resolve disputes—recently described China as ‘a clear and present danger.’ In the East, across the Taiwan Straits, East and South China Seas, China’s military actions are similarly spreading insecurity and creating grave global uncertainty. As Gen. Gautam Banerjee in his essay on China’s current strategic thinking argues, the Chinese Communist regime’s formally declared objective of capturing large tracts along India’s Northern and North-Eastern borders poses a serious threat to the very spirit of India and Indian nationhood.

China’s hostile military build-up and aggressive stance necessitates concerted and unified global opposition and deterrence. The Quad summit in Washington DC in September was a significant milestone in enhancing the strategic cooperation among the four Indo-Pacific powers to deal with 21st century challenges. They need to find appropriate ways to deal with this rising security threat—as China initiated conflicts loom over Taiwan, the Indo-Tibetan border, the Senkaku and the South China Sea.

The weakened Western alliance led by the United States is clearly not in a position to thwart the twin challenges emerging from China’s aggressive imperial advances and the fresh lease of life to Islamic extremism, on its own. Moreover, a shared perspective on the nature of threats, a unified strategy, and an agreement on burden sharing are missing. After 30 years of futile and haemorrhaging wars – in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria -- there is war weariness among the American people. It needs major strategic partners, especially in the world’s new strategic pivot -- the Indo-Pacific, to secure the liberal international order and ultimately itself. American hopes for a stable Indo-Pacific significantly rest on the support of its principal allies and strategic partners in the region—Japan, Australia and India. India’s rapid growth, expanding consumer markets, technological advancement and rising military power are crucial for crafting a new global balance of power that would sustain a rules-based cooperative world order as well as thwart China’s hegemonic ambitions. India too needs to deepen its strategic partnerships with the US, Japan, France, Australia—among others, to effectively deal with the rising security challenges posed by China, Pakistan and Islamic extremism. For the first time since Independence the interests of India and the US appear to have coalesced.

The Left-Liberal ‘Spoiler’ Network
Yet even as the strategic communities clearly see the need for building a strong Indo-US partnership as the bedrock of a global democratic alliance with the Quad as its central pillar, a segment of the Western liberal-left forces has made it its mission to undertake a sustained political campaign against the strong, popular and reformist Modi government in India. This is reflected in the negative coverage of India by the leading legacy media, reports of think tanks, human rights and media freedom reports, and writings by a network of Western academics. The latest is a superficial and inaccurate World Hunger Report. All these reports are based on inadequate information, poor understanding, absence of proper field studies and pronounced ideological prejudice. Their synchronised global campaign to show India and its majority Hindu population in an extremely negative light is being undertaken in parallel with anti-Modi groups in India, as well as anti-India forces sympathetic to Islamic extremism, Pakistan and China. Together they feed on each other’s prejudices and propaganda to mount a hostile and persistent political campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India. While the complex interplay between Indian democracy, nationalism and Hindu cultural assertion under the Modi government can be studied and debated, it is essential that the media and academia undertake an objective assessment of developments in the world’s second largest country. India is undergoing huge multi-dimensional socioeconomic- technological transformations that have enormous global strategic implications. This is a story they have, unfortunately, largely missed. Ironically, the Western liberals engaged in the vilification of the Indian government undermine the very strategic partnership that the US, Australia, UK, France and Europe are trying to forge with the world’s largest democracy to safeguard the liberal world order from China and Islamic extremist forces!

Leading experts on the media and on Indian democracy, A. Surya Prakash and Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in their searing critique of the Western liberal-left campaign against the Indian Government, expose the deep intellectual rot, socio-political disruptions and ideological biases that followed the decline of Enlightenment in the West. They highlight the ideological stance of the left-liberals in the West and the many prejudices and even falsehoods on which their campaign is based. Their work is complemented by Devsena Mishra’s critique of US Big-Tech’s global operations. She points to their roots in the intelligence and defence department’s funding of Silicon Valley Start-ups that continue to shape their information gathering. The unbridled and unregulated ‘freedom’ claimed by these giant private tech companies to pursue their commercial interest and their invisible ties to the security establishment of their home countries, she argues, seriously undermines India’s national security and must be addressed.

Exploring Diverse Themes
On the maritime and industrial domain, former naval officers Bhaskar Sengupta and Shantanu Bose contribute a valuable new policy brief laying out the roadmap for India to become a leading global Shipbuilding power—naval and commercial—leveraging its noteworthy naval shipbuilding capabilities. B.M. Suri, in his essay, underlines that India’s national security challenges will continue to place critical demands on indigenous high technologies and manufacturing based on them.

Finally, in a detailed review of an excellent new book on the making of the Indus Water Treaty, former Deputy National Security Advisor, Ambassador Satish Chandra analyses the historical, political, diplomatic and international factors that led to the World Bank mediated Agreement between India and Pakistan on the sharing of the Punjab rivers, despite being deeply flawed and against India’s interests. The segment ends with a review by scholar Hirak Das of a new study on Saudi Arabia’s educational reforms

This issue of National Security lays out the multiple challenges that are gathering on the Indian security front and the need for India to craft appropriate and urgent strategic responses to secure itself.
Prof. Sujit Dutta
Editor, National Security
by Sujit Dutta

Essays
Afghanistan: The Taliban Takeover and its Strategic Fallout
by Gautam Mukhopadhaya

Utopia and Desire: Biden’s Retreat from Afghanistan
by Umberto Sulpasso

What Does the Chinaman Think? by Gautam Banerjee

Technology Ecosystem & National Security by B.M. Suri

Terror Financing in Kashmir by Abhinav Pandya

Reality of Democracy in India: Contesting False Western Narrative by A. Surya Prakash

The Great Western Social Churn: India Caught in the Crossshairs by Abhijit Iyer-Mitra

Intelligence and Big Tech by Devsena Mishra

Policy Brief
Roadmap for India’s Dominance in Global Shipbuilding by Bhaskar Sengupta and Shantanu Bose

Book Reviews
Indus Basin Uninterrupted
by Satish Chandra

Educational Reforms in Saudi Arabia by Hirak J. Das

July-September

Articles
Belt and Road at the Cross-Roads: Imperial Ambitions and Blowback by Sujit Dutta

Periphery, Vulnerability and the Belt and Road Initiative by Abanti Bhattacharya

China Pakistan Economic Corridor: Domestic Trajectory and Contested Geopolitics by Prateek Joshi

Bangladesh and Belt Road Initiative: Unfolding Possibilities by Sreeradha Datta

The China Myanmar Economic Corridor: A Reality Check by Jaideep Chanda

Book Reviews
A Sensitive Account of the Brave Gurkhas by Arvind Gupta

Preparing for the 21st Century Battles
by P. K. Chakravorty

Apr-Jun

Essays
The Contours of Biden’s Foreign-Policy
by Arvind Gupta

Re-energising Indo-US Defence Technology Cooperation
by S. Guruprasad

The Wrinkle in US-India Strategic Alignment by Walter Lohman

India and the Biden Administration
by Kanwal Sibal

Articles
An Agenda For India-US Relations in a Biden Presidency by ARUN K. SINGH

Prospects of India-US Defence Cooperation by Anil Ahuja

Biden Administration and the Indo-Pacific Axis
by K.P. Vijayalakshmi

The United States And India: A Digital Partnership in Need of a Strategy by Arjun Kang Joseph & Rudra Chaudhuri

Book Review
Combating China’s Political Warfare: An American Analysis by Satish Chandra

Jan-Mar

Essays
Rescuing the Nation from History: Implications of Indian Historiography for National Security by Arpita Mitra

The Early Concept of Bharatavarsha by Rupendra Kumar Chattopadhyay & Arkaprava Sarkar

Reimagining Multilateralism : The Ethos and Philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam by Arvind Gupta

Articles
Nationalism in the Study of Ancient Indian History by Dilip K. Chakrabarti

How the Ancient Indian Vīṇā Travelled to Other Asian Countries: A Reconstruction though Scriptures, Sculptures, Paintings and Living Traditions by Piyal Bhattacharya and Shreetama Chowdhury

Potential of Geospatial Technologies as a Cognitive and Spatio-visual tool for Mapping the Past by M B Rajani & Shalini Dixit

Book Reviews
Kautilya’s Arthashastra: Fusion of the Philosophical and the Strategic
by Kajari Kamal

Comparing India and China, but not without Western biases
by Abanti Bhattacharya