Monthly Archives: June 2014

Avoid speaking tripe in China, General Bikram S

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh is scheduled to visit China July 2-5, and to meet the top military officer there — General Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, the apex military-defence-national security-related agency in … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Army, Internal Security, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Terrorism | 12 Comments

Cartographic initiative

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

This is the umpteenth time this has happened — a recent Chinese map shows Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. What has been India’s reaction? The MEA spokesman responded by saying that “cartographic depiction” does not change reality on the ground. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East | 8 Comments

India’s Unused Nuclear Leverage

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

The news that India had ratified the 1997 Additional Protocol permitting more intensive and intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and research including nuclear installations and facilities excluded by … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, nonproliferation, nuclear industry, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, nuclear power, Nuclear Weapons, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, United States, US., Weapons | 4 Comments

Nuclear folly

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

The first indication of a decision to sign the IAEA Additional Protocol (AP) came yesterday when someone in the know contacted me. I professed disbelief. I was wrong because in the afternoon today news agencies carried the story of GOI … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian ecobomic situation, nonproliferation, nuclear industry, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, nuclear power, society, South Asia, Technology transfer, United States | Leave a comment

Shooting oneself…

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

In any healthy organic system, a self-correcting mechanism kicks in the moment the system sensors sense something going wrong. For Narendra Modi led-BJP, which didn’t set a foot wrong in the long election campaign and, as regards its initial moves, … Continue reading →

Posted in Indian democracy, Indian Politics, Internal Security, society, South Asia | 7 Comments

Prepare Baghdad airlift and deploy a Special Forces unit

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

It’s been about a week since the threat to Baghdad from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) began developing into something serious. The greater Baghdad area also has the highest concentration of Indian expat workers in Iraq. While the … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, South Asia, Special Forces | 1 Comment

An Indian Monroe Doctrine

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

The news reports of secretaries to the government of India running around tidying up their office complexes in fear of an imminent visit by prime minister Narendra Modi puts one in mind of the hilarious short story—“Inspector General” by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Africa, Asian geopolitics, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Central Asia, China, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian democracy, Indian ecobomic situation, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, Indian Politics, Japan, Maldives, Military Acquisitions, Northeast Asia, Pakistan, Relations with Russia, Russia, society, South Asia, South East Asia, Sri Lanka, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, United States, Weapons, West Asia | 2 Comments

Extraordinary weapons

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

According to a source, one and half to two months back COAS Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha witnessed the demonstration of extraordinary weapons DRDO labs have been attempting to develop, such as bunker-busting bombs. The one device that abjectly failed … Continue reading →

Posted in Cyber & Space, Defence Industry, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Military Acquisitions, South Asia, Technology transfer, Weapons | 4 Comments

RC out, tk God; Saraswat in?

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

Those acquainted with my writing are no doubt aware of my antipathy for Dr. R Chidambaram, erstwhile Chmn, AEC, and for the last decade, S&T adviser to the PM whose removal has been advocated by me post-1998 tests. He has … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Defence Industry, DRDO, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian ecobomic situation, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, South Asia, Strategic Forces Command, Weapons | 3 Comments