Defense and Strategic Affairs

Time To Think Beyond Monroe Doctrine

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has visited 92 countries since 2014. In sharp contrast, Manmohan Singh, his predecessor at the PMO    undertook only 93 foreign trips during his 10 years in office. The difference in number of diplomatic visits reflects the style and priorities of the two prime ministers. Manmohan Singh largely travelled to meet diplomatic commitments and obligations. Modi, the flamboyant of the two, has used the trips more for promoting his own brand than to achieve foreign policy goals.

BRI and the Indo-Pacific Clash

THE Indo-Pacific has emerged as the centre of gravity of global geopolitics. This year’s APEC conference in Papua New Guinea did not produce a joint communique because of the growing Sino-US tensions. The Trump administration is pressurising China on trade and technology issues. The United States is relentlessly pursuing its strategic agenda to retain its dominance of the Indo-Pacific region and ensure that the Chinese growing economic power does not catapult it to command the region.

INF Treaty and the US Aggression

THE Trump administration that has been making concerted efforts to undermine the postwar liberal order is now set to jettison the Cold War nuclear order that introduced a modicum of nuclear sanity in the world. After the demise of Soviet Union in 1990s, the use of nuclear weapons as a political weapon reduced considerably. Although the nuclear proliferation bogey was extensively used against Iraq and Libya, but the politics of nuclear disarmament did not find much favour with the United States (US) strategic community.

S-400 Missile System Deal: Geo-Political Hot Potato

AFTER much suspense, India and Russia finally inked the $5.4 billion agreement on October 5, 2018 for India’s acquisition of the acclaimed S-400 Triumf anti-missile system during the 19th annual summit between the leaders of the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin was leading a truly high-powered team to New Delhi comprising Vice-Premier Yuri Borisov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov among other officials and business delegates.

The Remoteness of Sino-US Rupture

A FRESH Cold War is brewing in the world. The new battleground is Indo Pacific. China is America’s main enemy this time. China is not only poking at the US nuclear and naval hegemony but is also offering a formidable challenge to the dominance of the world by US dollar. The Chinese naval ships are “crossing the bows” of the American warships. Recently, a Chinese naval vessel came within 50 yards of the USS Decatur, loitering in South China Sea.

The COMCASA- CAATSA Trap

SOONER rather than later, India will have to take a stand against the dictates of the US security and state department. The former is forcing India to sign COMCASA and the latter is asking it to adhere to the 2017 enactment of the US Congress for ‘countering America’s adversaries through the imposition of sanctions for engaging with the Russian Federation’s defence sector’. The two departments are mounting pressure on India to capitulate and tow the US policy designed to counter the Sino-Russian combine.

Rafale Deal: A ‘Toofani’ Scam

NOT very long ago, in 2012, the Indian Air force (IAF) selected Rafale fighter jet for procurement to augment its depleting fleet. The process adopted by the IAF for evaluating the competing aircraft set the gold standards for fighter aircraft acquisitions. Air Commodore Jasjit Singh praised the Air Force for following a “systematic and scientific process”.

Rechristening the US PACOM

THE Indian Ocean is fast getting converted from a ‘zone of peace’ to an arena of competition and conflict. The US military has given a new name to its Pacific Command (PACOM), it is now called the US Indo-Pacific Command. The change is more than symbolic, it indicates that the American Combatant Command (COCOM) structure, erected to deal with a bipolar world and spread the American hegemony is undergoing transition.

Creating Civil-Military Schism

INDIA is ruled by polarisation experts. Our country is experiencing what an American anthropologist had identified as “schismogenesis” in simple words “creation of division”. The country seems to be in a perpetual state of conflict. There are slanging and shouting matches going on in TV studios and social media. And those in drawing rooms are shouting at their TV screens. Institutions, families and friends stand divided.

Green Berets & ‘White Helmets’ are All Participants In Imperial Wars in the Middle East

A FRESH round of imperialist bloodletting is on the cards in the Middle-East. They caused complete destruction of Fallujah in Iraq, they bombed hospitals in Afghanistan, and virtually flattened Mosul and Raqqa in Iraq and Syria.Trump and Netanyahu, backed by a set of reactionary monarchical Arab regimes, is out to devour one more nation to feed its insatiable imperial appetite.The US-Israeli war drive against Iran has assumed dangerous proportions.

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