Special Feature: Narendra Modi and Politics of National Defence
Executive Summary
Border Talks: What Does Future Hold for India and China?
The Year of Friendly Exchanges between India and the People’s Republic of China kicked off with the 17th Special Representatives’ Meeting on the Boundary Question in New Delhi on 10-11 February 2014 to forge closer and stronger ties between the two neighbours.
Qaidatul Jihad Comes Knocking at Bangladesh
After a tumultuous year marked by massive protest rallies and violent confrontations between moderate secularists and Islamic radical forces, Bangladesh’s tryst with religious and political turmoil seems enduring. The deteriorating situation has led to fear of the revival of Islamic militancy.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir Bangladesh: Transnational Islamist Movement
Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) is a transnational Islamic religious-political organization that has a presence in over 20 countries across the world. HT was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 by Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani. HT believes in the Ummatic concept. Its website openly declares that: "It aims to revive the Islamic Ummah from the severe decline that it had reached and to liberate it from the thoughts, systems and laws of Kufr, as well as the domination and influence of the Kufr states.
India: Is the CPI (Maoist) Losing Ground?
For the third year running, Maoists, also known as Naxalites (Indian version of left-wing-extremism), related fatalities and incidents have come down in the affected provinces of India. The Maoist conflict review reports indicated that in the year 2013, a total of 1,129 incidents took place, as compared to 1,415 incidents in 2012. Similarly, the number of fatalities across the country came down to 394 in the review period from 415 in the previous year.
Bangladesh: Are the January 2014 Parliamentary Elections Legitimate?
The political crisis in Bangladesh had deepened further with the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance’s call for a “March for Democracy” rally on December 29. More than seven hundred opposition party supporters were detained, and many more were arrested at different entry points to Dhaka since December 26. One person died during a clash between opposition party activists and security forces in Dhaka on December 29.
The Syrian Détente. Is This the End of the Unipolar Moment?
In his famous 1990 essay in Foreign Affairs, Charles Krauthammer declared that the unipolar moment had arrived. He listed a few reasons to support his argument: there was no challenging power, nor was there likely any in the few decades, no power dispersion at the international level, and the former Soviet Union’s capacity was in decline. Thus, Krauthammer emphasised that at that time, there was no first-rate power in the world that could match the capacity of the US.
TEJAS: Let India’s Own Light Combat Aircraft Reach New Heights
December 20, 2013, will be marked as a proud day for India and its military scientific and industrial sectors as the indigenously designed and developed Tejas (India’s light multi-role fighter aircraft, known as LCA) gets its second and most important initial operational clearance (IOC).
Subcontinental Woes: Quest for Nuclear Confidence Building Measures in South Asia
The protracted rivalry between India and Pakistan had reached its lowest ebb and virtually plumbed new depths when both countries detonated a series of nuclear devices way back in May 1998. This overt gesture and successive developments (such as Kargil) made the region a major nuclear flashpoint in the world. After six years, two warring neighbours have decided to sit across the table to hammer out the much-needed confidence-building measures (CBMs).