COMMENTARIES
  • Gwadar - Port of Hope or Despair?
    Alok Bansal    ·   08 Jul, 2005    ·    #1783    ·    Commentary    
    The Pakistan government has declared that the first phase of the Gwadar Port to be complete. It was not inaugurated by the Chinese Prime Minister as scheduled 'due to various reasons'. This fact is significant and indicates further deter...
  • Indo-US Defence Agreement: Impact on India's Neighbourhood
       ·   07 Jul, 2005    ·    #1782    ·    Commentary    
      The Defense Agreement signed by India and the US on 28 June 2005 is of historic significance. Known as the New Framework for US-India Defense Relationship (NFDR), it extends the Agreed Minute on Defense Relations signed between t...
  • Nuclear Bunker-Busters
    Ajay Lele    ·   06 Jul, 2005    ·    #1781    ·    Commentary    
    US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offers a very interesting argument as the rationale for continuing with the research on 'bunker-buster nuclear device'. According to him, the US is presently in possession of very large, very dirty, b...
  • HIV/AIDS Crisis & India's Security
    Happymon Jacob    ·   04 Jul, 2005    ·    #1780    ·    Commentary    
    HIV/AIDS is an imminent danger that India faces even as it marches towards big power status. The contemporary milieu is of enormous importance for the emergence of India as a power in the international system. This is because India's dexteri...
  • Defining India-US Defence Relations
       ·   01 Jul, 2005    ·    #1779    ·    Commentary    
    Pranab Mukherjee and Donald Rumsfeld signed the Defence Framework Agreement in Washington on June 28. It defined the parameters of strategic cooperation between the world's oldest and the largest democracies for the next ten years. It i...
  • Maritime Legal Conundrum
    Vijay Sakhuja    ·   29 Jun, 2005    ·    #1778    ·    Commentary    
    In the last three months, there have been two major legal debacles in cases relating to terror and crime in India. The first case relates to the acquittal of pirates who hijacked MV Alondra Rainbow in November 1999. The second case involves the ...
  • Alternative Approaches to Security
       ·   28 Jun, 2005    ·    #1777    ·    Commentary    
    Discussants: Dr Sudha Pai, Gopi Arora, Dr Varun Sahni PR Chari Studies on alternative approaches to security are a core interest of IPCS and an element of its original charter drafted in 1996. Indeed, the very first project un...
  • MANPADS Menace
    Prashant Dikshit    ·   27 Jun, 2005    ·    #1776    ·    Commentary    
    MANPADS is the abbreviation for Man Portable Air Defence Systems and these are surface to air missiles fired from the shoulder like a rifle. These military weapon systems were designed to engage and destroy hostile aircraft operating at very low...
  • Estimating China's defence expenditure
    Bhartendu Kumar Singh    ·   24 Jun, 2005    ·    #1775    ·    Commentary    
    Almost all great powers dedicate a considerable proportion of their finances on defence and China is no exception. However, while the defence budget of other nations are relatively more transparent, China's remains a mystery. Though China ha...
  • Enlightened Moderation and Kashmir Quagmire
    KS Manjunath    ·   23 Jun, 2005    ·    #1774    ·    Commentary    
    On a recent visit to Australia and New Zealand, Pakistan President Musharraf acknowledged his 'dubious' distinction of having fought the Indians in armed conflicts and now seeing himself as 'eminently qualified' to play the '...
POPULAR COMMENTARIES