Falling Esprit de Corps: Fragging and Suicides in Indian Army
While India is known for its disciplined armed forces, numbers of stress-related deaths in the form of suicide and fragging have been increasing in recent years, especially in troubled states of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Northeast India. Apart from tackling terrorism, escalation of fragging and suicides in such sensitive regions provide additional threats to national security. It also affects the morale of young aspirants and distracts them from pursuing it as a career option.
Forest: Ultimate Conflict Zones of India
India’s forest land, rich in natural resources like forest derivatives and minerals, is undoubtedly the cauldron of various degrees of conflict. From civil wars in Chhattisgarh to armed conflict in the East, it has created internal security more volatile than ever before in India. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has a special wing to neutralise this ‘internal security’ with solid policing. The growing number of conflicts in the forest area have threatened the forest resources and the livelihood of inhabitants.
Pakistan: The Rise and Fall of Red Mosque
The fall of the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) has indeed heralded a new era in Pakistan marked by conflict between moderate and fundamentalist forces.
Manipur: Insurgent Politics
Contesting claims over territorial supremacy by rival insurgent groups have not only resulted in a violent conflict between the insurgents’ themselves but, it also has the potential to generate misunderstanding between communities they claim to represent. This is exactly the present state of affairs in India’s northeastern state of Manipur where several such groups have turned this beautiful land into their fiefdom.
USS Nimitz in Indian Coast: The Gunboat Diplomacy
The docking of the USS Nimitz in Chennai port has challenged India’s independent foreign policy and its long-lasting tradition against imperialism, colonialism, and superpower hegemony. Supporters of Nimitz’s brief visit who praise it as a testimony to the bourgeoning Indo-US strategic relationship should acknowledge the long-drawn coercive history of the Nimitz nuclear ship and the use of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ to restore US imperialistic interests.
Jemaah Islamiyah: Survival in Question Following High Profile Arrests
One of the most dreaded terrorist groups in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is presently facing a leadership crisis. The arrest of two of its most prominent leaders, Abu Dujana and Zarkasih (also known as Yusron Mahmudi and Abu Irsyad respectively) has jeopardized JI’s future plans in the region. Of late, JI has faced the wrath of the anti-terrorist initiatives by the Indonesian government duly supported by other Southeast Asian neighbours as well as Australia.
Southern Thailand: Emerging Theatre of Conflict
After the Thailand government’s rejection of civil rights groups demand to soften emergency decree in the three restive southern provinces, the security situation has been deteriorated further and tensions remain at all time high. The decree in question has become a source of growing fear and hostility between the populace in these violence-hit provinces and government forces since a state of emergency was clamped in July last year.
Negotiating With China- II
The fundamental cultural influences [mentioned in the first part of the article, “Negotiating with China-I”, Article No:120, June 14, 2007] have left their imprint on the Chinese negotiating style. Scholars like John Graham and Mark Lam (The Chinese Negotiation, Harvard Business Review, October 2003) have identified and defined a set of eight elements that one would have to contend with when dealing with the Chinese.
Negotiating with China- I
After four decades of a political standoff, the recent thaw in Sino-Indian relations has seen a renewal of dialogue and the start of substantive negotiations between the two countries. But negotiating with the Chinese—the inscrutable Orientals, as the Europeans called them—requires a very different set of sensitivities and skills from what we Indians are accustomed to.