Category Archives: Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East

Strategic pincer & Trojan Horses

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

Consider the simplified timeline: on May 4, when the armed intrusion by Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the Depsang Bulge is on-going, the Indian government in an inspired fit announces the extension of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Japan, Military Acquisitions, Nuclear Weapons, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Technology transfer | 12 Comments

China hand behind growls of NoKo paper tiger

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

The Kim Jong Eun regime in North Korea is the proverbial paper tiger — all sound and fury, and near farcical capabilities when matched up against any of its adversaries in the Far East. It’s another matter that the US … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, Japan, Northeast Asia, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, United States, US. | 4 Comments

Frog in hot water

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

John Garver, a leading American expert on Sino-Indian relations, has likened Beijing’s strategy towards India to the traditional Chinese way of cooking a frog. Plonk the frog in a vessel and turn up the heat slowly. If the water was … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Central Asia, China, China military, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, indian policy -- Israel, Iran and West Asia, Japan, Missiles, Northeast Asia, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, West Asia | 11 Comments

Rogue Triad and H-Bomb Tests

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on February 3 that a third nuclear test by North Korea was imminent at its Punggye test site in the Hamgyong Mountain range in the northeastern part of that country adjoining the Chinese Jiangsu … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, disarmament, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Missiles, nonproliferation, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, Pakistan military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Technology transfer, Terrorism, United States, US., West Asia | 10 Comments

Indigenization and the Indian Navy

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

Passing strange that there has has been so little  (or no) coverage of the Navarms2013 symposium in Delhi January 31-Feb 1. The Navarms meet is apparently a once in 3 years affair (last held in 2007 and 2010).  There have been some … Continue reading →

Posted in Defence Industry, DRDO, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Navy, Relations with Russia, russian assistance, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Technology transfer | 3 Comments

China’s Tibet handicap

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

China’s attitude to its own security is like the United States’, or of any great power in earlier times. It seeks absolute security, which means absolute insecurity for every other country, especially states in its vicinity. The chimerical nature of … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, Central Asia, China, China military, Europe, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's strategic thinking and policy, Pakistan, Pakistan military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, United States, US. | 1 Comment

Baser Instincts at the Border

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

The beheading of Lance Naik Hemraj of the Rajputana Rifles, confirmed by the Army Chief General Bikram Singh on January 14, is an act that strays beyond incomprehensibility and into the area of the unfathomably egregious. The habit of mutilating … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Asian geopolitics, Central Asia, China, China military, civil-military relations, Geopolitics, India's China Policy, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Army, Pakistan, Pakistan military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Terrorism, United States, US. | 1 Comment

No Churning on China

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

No churning on China Bharat Karnad Situation awareness is a prime tactical, operational and strategic level military attribute and also, one assumes, a quality equally prized by politicians who need to be sensitive about every fold in an unravelling situation. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, China military, Cyber & Space, Geopolitics, Great Power imperatives, India's China Policy, India's Pakistan Policy, India's strategic thinking and policy, Indian Air Force, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Ocean, Pakistan, Pakistan military, South Asia, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East | 19 Comments

Meaningless cabinet jiggle

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Bharat Karnad

It is not clear what the cabinet reshuffle that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or, as the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, at an election rally in Himachal Pradesh, wittily called him, Maun Mohan Singh, and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian geopolitics, China, Geopolitics, India's China Policy, Indian Politics, Internal Security, nonproliferation, Nuclear Policy & Strategy, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, United States, US. | Leave a comment

Folly of Pakistan’s Taliban Logic

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Bharat Karnad

Pakistan is “the sick man of Asia”. In the early 21st Century, our neighbour to the west deserves that appellation as, ironically, Turkey-Ottoman Empire did in the 19th century. Turkey, if you recall, was the model of the army-run state … Continue reading →

Posted in Afghanistan, Asian geopolitics, civil-military relations, Geopolitics, India's Pakistan Policy, Indian Army, Indian Politics, Internal Security, Pakistan, Strategic Relations with South East Asia & Far East, Strategic Relations with the US & West, Terrorism | 7 Comments