The Strategist by Vijay Shankar
Vijay Shankar
 Vice Admiral (Retd.)
  • Rewarding Thugs
    Vijay Shankar   ·    16 Aug, 2016   ·    5104
    On 12 July 2016, a long delinquent inspiration struck key members of the US Congress concerned with terrorism, non-proliferation, and trade. In concluding the hearing of the Joint Sub-Committee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on &ldqu ...
  • South China Sea: China’s Double Speak and Verdict at The Hague
    Vijay Shankar   ·    19 Jul, 2016   ·    5085
    When Premier Xi rubbished the 12 July 2016 verdict of the International Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on China’s claims over most of the South China Sea, what exactly was meant? For no international justice system had ...
  • There is a New Symphony at Play
    Vijay Shankar   ·    22 Jun, 2016   ·    5066
    Change, more often than not, is driven by circumstances rather than scholastic deliberation. As President Obama once put it, perhaps as an unintended barb to the legions of geopolitical seers that stalk Massachusetts Avenue, Washington DC ...
  • Barbarism and the Smell of Cordite
    Vijay Shankar   ·    30 May, 2016   ·    5045
    Aggregation of power is never more apparent than when there is dramatic increase in state controlled power-activism. Equally impactful is the growing disregard for moral principles when power (political, corporate or military) is exercise ...
  • To Steer the Stream of Time: The Crisis of Verge Powers
    Vijay Shankar   ·    18 Mar, 2016   ·    5000
    The Crisis of Verge Powers  A quarter of a century after the demise of the Soviet Union brought an end to the bi-polar confrontation of the Cold War, what is emerging today is a fluctuating plurality of on-the-verge-great powers ...
  • Forecast 2016: Pakistan, Aberrated Strategies and Strategic Stability
    Vijay Shankar   ·    18 Jan, 2016   ·    4961
    In the immediate aftermath of the 26/11 terrorist assault on Mumbai, a grisly prayer was being intoned in many of the two lakh mosques of Pakistan. The Qunut-e-Nazla, a prayer in times of war, was accompanied by a fervent imprecation that ...
  • What is Strategic Stability?
    Vijay Shankar   ·    12 Oct, 2015   ·    4921
    The Cold War Paradigm There is no consensus on the definition of strategic stability nor is there common understanding of what it comprises; it is also reasonable to assume that there probably never will be. Yet, the awkward irony is ...
  • Jihadi Aggression and Nuclear Deterrence
    Vijay Shankar   ·    15 Sep, 2015   ·    4912
    Pakistan’s use of terror organisations as a tool of State policy to wage unconventional war against India (Christine Fair, Fighting to the End) has perverse consequences that link sub-conventional warfare with nuclear escalation. Th ...
  • The Blight of Ambiguity
    Vijay Shankar   ·    14 Jul, 2015   ·    4899
    Is ambiguity in Pakistan’s nuclear policy a deliberate drama being played out by a strutting military to legitimise its vision of the Pakistani nation? A prevalent position in the Pakistani military establishment, particularly ...
  • Falun Gong: The Fear Within
    Vijay Shankar   ·    09 Jun, 2015   ·    4886
    In April 1999, a decade after the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, an encore of the 1989 tragedy unfolded at the same venue. The scale of proportions was the same and so were State anxieties that unleashed mass persecution. In the even ...
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