Clik here to view.
Fifty Years After a Nasty High-Altitude War, a Border Dispute Remains Unresolved
THE Venerable Lobsang Norbu, a 77-year-old monk who presides over one of several Tibetan Buddhist hilltop monasteries in Arunachal Pradesh, in north-eastern India, recalls the “very horrible” war that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How China Fights: Lessons From the 1962 Sino-Indian War
The rest of the world may have forgotten the anniversary, but a neglected border war that took place 50 years ago is now more pertinent than ever. Before dawn on the morning of Oct. 20, 1962, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bhutan’s Happiness Quotient Threatened
By South Asian standards, politics in Bhutan remains exceptionally clean and gentle. The electoral commission forbids even serving beer or yak cheese, chili and rice at campaign meetings. Each night...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faraway Neighbour
The “crisis” in India’s relations with Bhutan did not begin with New Delhi’s bungled withdrawal of petroleum subsidies in the middle of the recent elections. Nor has it ended with the claim that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
China Paper Calls Bhutan India’s Protectorate
As a country located between China and India, Bhutan serves as a buffer and is of critical strategic importance to the Siliguri Corridor, a narrow stretch of land that connects India’s northeastern...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Losing The Plot
At least in the Maldives, the Manmohan Singh government has sought to correct its botched analysis of the political situation. Across the rest of South Asia, Delhi has so clearly lost its nerve that it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Enlightened National Interest
The SAARC summit in Kathmandu this November will see all countries give another push to SAFTA, the free trade agreement, while they will discuss cooperation on everything from power distribution and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Modi And His Foreign Policy Doctrine
It is perhaps too soon to try and discern a distinctive “Modi doctrine.” But the wider arc of foreign and strategic policy is gradually coming into focus. The government’s early initiatives have been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
India And Its “Fast Power”
While hard power and soft power are necessary attributes of sustainable power projection by nation states, smart and fast power can help nations, big and small, find their way through or adapt to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Continuity In Modi’s Foreign Policy, But…
What we are currently witnessing is Mr. Modi’s inability to abandon all that rhetoric. Building up jingoism has been an essential part of this quintessential campaigner. Even if he wants to — which we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
South Asia’s Berlin Walls
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comparison of the boundary settlement with Bangladesh to the fall of the Berlin wall a quarter century ago might be surprising for many. The PM, who spent much...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Economics Of Influence: China and India In South Asia
India has enjoyed substantial regional influence across South Asia due to its size, comparative economic might, and historical and cultural relevance to the region. China’s history of involvement in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can SAARC Survive India And Pakistan’s Squabbles?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking towards the dais to address the nation at the Red Fort, on the occasion of India’s 70th Independence Day. Following the recent drama at the SAARC meeting in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can the Doklam Dispute Be Resolved?
Great power disputes have the potential to wreak havoc throughout Asia, as the Sino-Indian faceoff shows. From New Delhi’s perspective, China continues to try to encircle it from the north, not only in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mind The Power Gap
To be sure, Delhi is now far more conscious of the existential challenges that the power gap with Beijing generates. This awareness, however, is yet to be matched by a sense of urgency across the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why 2017 Is Not 1987
More than the global and domestic situation, the biggest difference between the two stand-offs is their respective locations. Forty years ago, the two armies were confronting each other on territory...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Calling The Chinese Bully’s Bluff
The more power China has accumulated, the more it has attempted to achieve its foreign-policy objectives with bluff, bluster, and bullying. But, as its Himalayan border standoff with India’s military...
View ArticleClik here to view.
India Is Playing With Fire, And It Could Get Burned, Says People’s Daily
The military border standoff between China and India in the Dong Lang area (Doklam) reveals India’s geopolitical ambitions and motivation to use “protecting Bhutan” as an excuse for its own superpower...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nepal Torn Both Ways As Stand-Off Between India And China Continues
A senior Chinese official’s visit to Nepal next week will highlight the dilemma faced by the Himalayan country amid the ongoing standoff between its two giant neighbours China and India. Chinese Vice...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Squeezed By An India-China Standoff, Bhutan Holds Its Breath
India’s main garrison in the Kingdom of Bhutan sits only 13 miles from a disputed border with China. There is a training academy, a military hospital, a golf course — all testament to India’s enduring...
View Article
