India Needs National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)

State governments ruled by non-Congress party opposed the formation of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) due to the apprehension of dominant authority and unilateral action of centre over states using the agency would challenge their authority. Consequently, Indian Government has planned to draft a more transparent and accountable proposal of NCTC to pacify the opposition, that the NCTC is kept out of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and states be given major role in counterterrorism activities. 

 

DR.R. BHANU KRISHNA KIRAN

Resurgent Taliban Poses Greater Security Challenges for Pakistan

Pakistan has been struggling to cope with a multitude of predicaments ranging from political instability to sectarian intolerance which often prompts the international community to tag this South Asian nation as a failing state. The homegrown neo-Talibanism in the tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan and Jihadi proxies in areas bordering India continues to pose myriad security challenges for Pakistan’s internal security as well as physical integrity.

 

ANIMESH ROUL

SPECIAL REPORT: The Hague Code of Conduct: Predicting the Future

The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC) has completed ten years of its existence. This code was formally brought into effect on November 25, 2002, at a conference hosted by the Netherlands at The Hague. This was also known as the International Code of Conduct (ICOC). This code is voluntary and not-binding in nature and mainly expects the subscribing states to furnish annual declarations on missile policy and the pre-launch notifications (PLNs) of missile test launches.

AJEY LELE

Radicalization, Terrorism and Community Engagement in India-I

The arrest of the suspects of terror activities in Bangalore, Nanded, and Hyderabad and the low-intensity bomb explosions in Pune on 1 August 2012 are pointing fingers at the involvement of some Indian Muslims. Earlier also, many of the terrorist attacks against cities in India had been conceptualized and planned by Indian Muslims who sought to attack their own country. Despite these events, India has not taken any comprehensive community engagement programme (CEP) to engage the Muslim community to check radicalization, which is a solid tool for controlling homegrown terrorism.

DR. R. BHANU KRISHNA KIRAN

Asian Shipyards Respond to Arctic Opportunities

December 15, 2012

The Arctic sea ice has refrozen after a relatively longer summer this year compared with 2011. During the season, there were three significant shipping events. First, the navigation conditions during the year were favourable and a tanker was in transit as on 30 November, compared to 18 November 2011 when the last voyage had been completed. Second, 46 vessels transited through the Northern Sea Route (25 eastbound and 21 westbound) which compares favorably to 34 transits in 2011 and only four in 2010.

BIOWEAPON MONITOR 2012

The BioWeapons Monitor 2012 contains country reports on BWC-relevant activities in eight states: Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In-country authors collected and analysed relevant information that is distributed through this publication. The authors used open sources and actively sought information from government departments, research institutions, industry, scientific societies and other entities.