Category Archives: Europe

Fire Up Defence Industry

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

The recent Singapore Air Show opened a week after the Indian Defence Expo (Defexpo 2014) ended in Delhi. What evoked interest in Singapore was the CN-235 turboprop maritime patrol aircraft that Indonesia displayed there. Considering the Indonesian defence industry was … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, Military Acquisitions, Northeast Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, United States, US., Weapons | 3 Comments

“Can India be Cunning”

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

The above was the title of a talk at the Subbu Forum, at IDSA, this evening by the West’s go-to Asian savant, Kishore Mahbubani, former Foreign Secretary of Singapore and currently Dean of the Lew Kuan Yew School of Public … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Asian geopolitics, China, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, Indian democracy, Japan, Northeast Asia, Pakistan, Russia, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Terrorism, United States, US., West Asia, Western militaries | 5 Comments

Callow and confused Rahul

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Bharat Karnad

Arnab Goswami’s interview with Rahul Gandhi last night revealed the Congress Party Vice President as a callow and confused person. To every question posed he had the same stock nonsequiterish response — RTI, recruiting the aam janata into politics, etc. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Europe, Indian democracy, Indian Politics, South Asia | 2 Comments

Flesh Out Message, Mr Modi

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

Like the enraged Iraqis who a decade ago pulled down the giant statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and agitating Ukrainians last week uprooted Lenin from his pedestal in central Kiev, the voters in three heartland states and in Delhi … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Indian Politics, society, South Asia, West Asia | 2 Comments

Stop wasteful military deals

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

Reduction of the Rs 4 lakh-crore fiscal deficit will require a drastic winnowing of defence expenditure programmes. The wasteful military procurement system that fetches, as it were, as much chaff as grain, offers obvious targets for excision. Among them the … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, civil-military relations, Defence Industry, DRDO, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian ecobomic situation, Indian Politics, Military Acquisitions, Relations with Russia, russian assistance, russian military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, Western militaries | 22 Comments

Obama — saving face

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

After all the heightened drama,war noises, and threatening talk emanating for the last several weeks from Washington of mounting punitive attacks on Syria for Damascus’ alleged úse of chemical weapons (CWs), President Obama seems all set to accept a so-called … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Asian geopolitics, China military, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, guerilla warfare, Missiles, Russia, russian assistance, russian military, United States, US., Weapons, West Asia, Western militaries | 4 Comments

Zubin and his Childish enthusiasms

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

Zubin Mehta, conductor of perhaps the finest orchestra in the world, the Berlin Philharmonic, is happy he made music to bring solace to the people of Kashmir. Had he followed up with the kind of reserve he maintained in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, guerilla warfare, India's Pakistan Policy, Indian Army, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Pakistan, Pakistan military, South Asia, Terrorism | 5 Comments

Obama’s potentially appalling mistake

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

The US learns nothing from its wars, not from all the military disasters it set in train in this millennium — Afghanistan and Iraq that did little else but prepare the ground for the Islamist radical take-over. Yes, Saddam Hussain … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Cyber & Space, Defence Industry, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, guerilla warfare, Russia, russian military, Terrorism, United States, US., West Asia, Western militaries | 6 Comments

F-22 Downed (?) and US-Russian reset

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

There are conflicting reports about an US Air Force F-22 Raptor crashing in Jordan in the area bordering Syria. Whether or not such an aircraft was downed presumably by a Syrian S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft missile unit that Russia also touts as … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, Missiles, Russia, russian assistance, russian military, United States, US., Weapons, West Asia, Western militaries | 3 Comments

More nuclear claptrap from another ex-diplomat

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

I suspect that whenever former civil service types, ex-diplomats, and growingly even retired militarymen feel the inner tug to be in the public eye, they pronounce on things manifestly beyond their ken and areas of expertise, revealing their quite appalling … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, disarmament, Europe, Geopolitics, India's China Policy, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Japan, Military Acquisitions, Missiles, nonproliferation, Northeast Asia, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, Pakistan military, Pakistan nuclear forces, South Asia, South East Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, United States, US. | 12 Comments