Crown Jewel Panic
Joint India-US planning is a must given the asymmetric risks of snatch operations The only interesting new thing in Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker report on the issue of the security of Pakistan’s crown...
View ArticleSchelling questions the abolition of nuclear weapons
First check if there is better than here The professor has set the question paper. And it’s not an easy exam. The desirability of a world without nuclear weapons, Thomas Schelling argues in a brilliant...
View ArticleSpooked by an unfinished doctrine?
The Pakistani military establishment has its reasons to over-react to General Deepak Kapoor’s remarks This time, it’s an obscure comment at an internal seminar about a new doctrine that the Indian army...
View ArticleRealism in Riyadh
Getting Saudi Arabia to take responsibility for Pakistan’s actions is in India’s interests At a recent conference in Abu Dhabi on emerging powers and the Middle East, one of the arguments I made was...
View ArticlePremature militarisation
Until we know what the game is about, cyber strategy must be stewarded by the civilian authorities George F Kennan, whose views shaped US foreign policy towards the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the...
View ArticleNewspapering over nuclear weapons
Rules won’t make China obey them. Nukes just might. The Economist declares China v India as the contest of the century. Good. It should help focus minds of international readers on an important issue,...
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What’s the Korean for Parakram?
What North Korea is doing to South Korea is quite similar to Pakistan’s strategy with respect to India—carry out provocative acts of aggression under the umbrella of nuclear weapons in a bid to coerce...
View ArticlePakistan’s ‘second’ nuclear arsenal
My talk at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi Earlier this month, I presented my analysis of Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal at CLAWS. A summary of the talk and discussion is up...
View ArticleThe case for South Korean nukes
Self-help is best Kim Dae-joong, columnist at South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper calls for Seoul to develop its own nuclear arsenal, arguing that the South’s nuclearisation is the key to the...
View ArticleQuoted
(…in the Aman ki Asha newspapers) Chidanand Rajghatta’s report in the Times of India on the Pakistan’s fast growing nuclear arsenal quotes me: Some analysts scoffed at reports of expanding Pakistani...
View ArticleConcerns about secret US raids into Pakistan
US covert operations in Pakistan pose risks to India There is something disturbing about US raids of the sort that killed Osama bin Laden. If the level of secrecy was so high that the Pakistani...
View ArticleSecure under the New Himalayas
Nuclear weapons in Indian strategic culture This is the full unedited version of my essay that appeared in the 35th anniversary special issue of India Today. Despite living next to each other for most...
View ArticleOn Agni V
A milestone in the longstanding strategy of security by deterrence From my response to a journalist’s questions. The Agni V missile is part of India’s long term strategy to attain security through...
View ArticleAgni-V in perspective
In simple terms This appeared in DNA yesterday. Let’s look at some of interesting questions that arose after the recent test of the Agni-V missile. The first is whether it is really an...
View ArticleCheering Pakistan’s missile test
May they have ever longer ranges! It is in India’s interests that Pakistan should acquire missiles with very long ranges. The greater the range, the better it is for India. No, this is neither sarcasm...
View ArticleAiming for nuclear war prevention
Non-proliferation is not the only way to prevent nuclear war. (It may not even be a way at all.) Craig Campbell and Jan Ruzicka have a refreshing blog post at the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage on how...
View ArticleThe Saudi bomb
Made in Pakistan, Supported by China, but still Saudi Arabia’s nuclear weapon This week, a major Western media house discovered that the Saudi Arabia has already paid Pakistan for the bomb and can have...
View ArticleWhat to make of India’s surgical strike?
India’s punitive strike across the Line of Control could set a new norm Whatever might be the consequences, it is clear that the Indian Army’s operation across the Line of Control in retaliation to a...
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