Summary
First published in 2005, this book is the second volume produced by the Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG). The Indian Ocean Region has become increasingly important to discussions on energy security, not only because of the critical importance of regional states as energy suppliers, but also because of the essential role of the Ocean as an energy route. The main purpose of this volume is to provide an elaborate and critical evaluation of some of these issues and their implications for regions outside the Indian Ocean.
Country or Region: Pakistan
McLaughlin, Dr. Rob
Abstract
Use of the Indian Ocean as a major drugs trafficking route – particularly for heroin originating in Afghanistan – poses a maritime security and a maritime law enforcement challenge. This article seeks to explore one dimension of this challenge – the lack of a ‘legal finish’ (such as prosecution) for the majority of drug seizures made within international waters in the Indian Ocean region. The article proposes three possible avenues towards improved outcomes: Formally combining the issues of terrorism and terrorist financing in Afghanistan with Indian Ocean heroin trafficking, in order to better leverage existing authorisations relating to the former; taking a more robust approach to asserting follow-on jurisdiction over unflagged vessels; and better utilisation of existing obligations, mechanisms and networks in order to achieve improved interdiction rates over flagged vessels.
Read the article here (subscription required).
Maluki, Patrick
Summary
Regionalism in the Indian Ocean: Order, Cooperation and Community ia a result of the authors research while at Jawarhalal Nehru University.The book looks at factors favouring regionalism in the Indian Ocean; where a shared history, geographical contiguity and global economically based regional blocks act as pull factors while the end of Cold War, political and economic reforms within the regionalism, and a growing consiousness of the need for the strategic control of the Indian Ocean act as push factors.
Llewellyn, Lyndon E., Susan English, and Sharon Barnwell
Abstract
The Indian Ocean is a vital part of the economies, livelihoods and cultural identities of the States which border or lie within its boundaries. Fisheries, offshore oil and gas, tourism and maritime industries are already making a significant contribution to the economies of the Indian Ocean states. New opportunities are appearing in these established sectors and new emerging sectors which will require a cooperative approach to capture and exploit in a sustainable manner. The ocean does not recognise geopolitical boundaries and many of its ecosystems and much of its biodiversity are transboundary which can give rise to competitive exploitation. We propose that continued, coordinated and proactive growth of the blue economies within the Indian Ocean need to be built upon principles of:
- sharing of skills, data and knowledge;
- integrated regional scale planning between nations;
- adoption of marine-specific policies;
- robust governance for industry and governments to work within and which the community understands and has confidence in its quality and operation and
- collaboration between governments and industry, drawing upon the skills and capital of both of these sectors.
Together, these principles will enable Indian Ocean nations to build their critical mass in skills and grow their knowledge base that will underpin sustainable blue economic growth.
Read the article online here (subscription required).
Kelegama, Saman
Abstract
The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation was launched to affect a quicker process of liberalization in countries disadvantaged in one way or other in the WTO regime, so that through open regional arrangements and agreements they could all gain quickly from the transforming trade and investment environment. An assessment of its five-year existence.
Read the article online here.
Jalal, Ayesha
Summary
Established as a homeland for India’s Muslims in 1947, Pakistan has had a tumultuous history that has unfolded in the vortex of dire regional and international conflicts. Beset by assassinations, coups, ethnic strife, and the breakaway of Bangladesh in 1971, the country has found itself too often contending with religious extremism and military authoritarianism. Now, in a probing biography of her native land amid the throes of global change, Ayesha Jalal provides an insider’s assessment of how this nuclear-armed Muslim nation evolved as it did and explains why its dilemmas weigh so heavily on prospects for peace in the region.
Attentive to Pakistan’s external relations as well as its internal dynamics, Jalal shows how the vexed relationship with the United States, border disputes with Afghanistan in the west, and the conflict with India over Kashmir in the east have played into the hands of the generals who purchased security at the cost of strong democratic institutions. Combined with domestic ethnic and regional rivalries, such pressures have created a siege mentality that encourages military domination and militant extremism.
Since 9/11, the country has been widely portrayed as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism. Assessing the threats posed by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as American troops withdraw from Afghanistan, Jalal contends that the battle for Pakistan’s soul is far from over. Her definitive biography reveals how pluralism and democracy continue to struggle for a place in this Muslim homeland, where they are so essential to its future.
Jaffrelot, Christrophe
Summary
Pakistan was born as the creation of elite Urdu-speaking Muslims who sought to govern a state that would maintain their dominance. After rallying non-Urdu speaking leaders around him, Jinnah imposed a unitary definition of the new nation state that obliterated linguistic diversity. This centralisation – ‘justified’ by the Indian threat – fostered centrifugal forces that resulted in Bengali secessionism in 1971 and Baloch, as well as Mohajir, separatisms today.
Concentration of power in the hands of the establishment remained the norm, and while authoritarianism peaked under military rule, democracy failed to usher in reform, and the rule of law remained fragile at best under Zulfikar Bhutto and later Nawaz Sharif. While Jinnah and Ayub Khan regarded religion as a cultural marker, since their time the Islamists have gradually prevailed. They benefited from the support of General Zia, while others, including sectarian groups, cashed in on their struggle against the establishment to woo the disenfranchised.
Today, Pakistan faces existential challenges ranging from ethnic strife to Islamism, two sources of instability which hark back to elite domination. But the resilience of the country and its people, the resolve of the judiciary and hints of reform in the army may open a new and more stable chapter in its history.
Dombrowski, Peter, and Andrew Winner, eds
Summary
The Indian Ocean, with its critical routes for global commerce, is a potentially volatile location for geopolitical strife. Even as the region’s role in the international economy and as a highway to conflict zones increases, the US has failed to advance a coherent strategy for protecting its interests in the Indian Ocean or for managing complex diplomatic relationships across the region. The Indian Ocean and US Grand Strategy presents a range of viewpoints about whether and how the US should alter its diplomatic and military strategies for this region.
Contributors examine US interests in the Indian Ocean, assess the relative critical importance or imperiled nature of these interests, and propose solutions for American strategy ranging from minimal change to maximum engagement. The book concludes with a comparative assessment of these options and a discussion of their implications for US policymakers. This volume’s perspectives and analysis of the Indian Ocean region will be valued by scholars and students of US foreign policy, South Asia, and security studies as well as by diplomats, military officers, and other practitioners.
Bateman, Sam
Abstract
This paper considers arrangements for providing maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) at both the national and regional levels. The main requirement at the regional level is a mechanism or mechanisms for cooperation on maritime security concerns both between regional countries themselves and between these countries and the extra-regional countries that have a legitimate interest in IOR maritime security. At a national level the necessary capacity for providing maritime security includes arrangements for coordination between the various agencies involved and the operational capabilities for maritime law enforcement to provide good order at sea. The paper discusses the relative attributes of a navy or a coast guard to provide these capabilities. It concludes with ideas about how maritime security governance in the IOR might be improved.
Read the article online here (subscription required).
Paul, T. V., ed
Summary
India-Pakistan rivalry remains one of the most enduring and unresolved conflicts of our times. It began with the birth of the two states in 1947, and it has continued ever since, with the periodic resumption of wars and crises. The conflict has affected every dimension of interstate and societal relations between the two countries and, despite occasional peace initiatives, shows no signs of abating. This volume brings together leading experts in international relations theory and comparative politics to explain the persistence of this rivalry. Their analysis offers possible conditions under which the rivalry could be terminated.
Singh, P. K
Abstract
Nuclear weapons in various stages—in established armories, latent capacity, or merely embryonic potential—are alive, well, and thriving in Asia. Ashley Tellis has very aptly written that “given the contested geopolitics of Asia, which is defined by several enduring rivalries, many unresolved territorial disputes, significant local power transitions, and now the continent-wide anxieties provoked by the rise of China, it is not surprising that nuclear weapons have retained their critical importance.” To put the South Asian dimension of the nuclear environment in its correct perspective, it is critical to view the disputes, rivalries, and players involved in a historical and regional context. This essay begins with a brief historical overview of the regional dimension of India-Pakistan nuclear dynamics and then looks more specifically at the perspectives and nuclear policies of India and Pakistan, as well as on China’s nuclear policy vis-à-vis India. Finally, the essay concludes by asserting that the India-Pakistan nuclear dyad must be understood within the context of broader nuclear dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region.
Read the article here (subscription required).
Friedberg, Aaron L
Abstract
The 25 years since the end of the Cold War have seen several notable shifts in the global distribution of nuclear capabilities:
- The Soviet Union (now Russia) and the United States have slashed their arsenals by roughly 75% from 20,000–30,000 warheads to 7,000–8,000.
- France and Britain have also made substantial cuts, reducing their nuclear forces from 500 weapons at their peak to roughly 300 and 200, respectively.
- Of the Cold War “big five” (the United States, Britain, France, Soviet Union, and China), only China has not reduced its stockpile, which is estimated at 250 warheads. Beijing has also made significant investments in modernizing its forces, developing new mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
- Three new countries (India, Pakistan, and North Korea) have joined the list of acknowledged nuclear weapons states, and one (South Africa) has been removed.
- Finally, in recent years a series of aspirants (Iraq, Libya, and Syria) have seen their nuclear ambitions foiled, while one (Iran) continues to press on toward the finish line.
What are the implications of these developments for the conduct of international relations, and, in particular, how are they likely to shape events in eastern Eurasia, a zone of strategic interaction that extends from the Korean Peninsula, down through the South Asian subcontinent, and into the Persian Gulf region? The essays in this roundtable have helped shed light on three aspects of this question: proliferation, arms racing, and stability.
Read the article here (purchase required).
Vijayan, P. K., M. T. Kamble, A. K. Nayak, K. K. Vaze, and R. K. Sinha
Abstract
Following the Fukushima accident, the safety features of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) are being re-examined worldwide including India to demonstrate capabilities to cope with severe accidents. In order to restore public confidence and support for nuclear power, it is felt necessary to design future NPPs with near zero impact outside the plant boundary and thus enabling elimination of emergency planning in public domain. Authors have identified a set of safety features which are needed to be incorporated in advanced reactors to achieve this goal. These features enabling prevention, termination, mitigation and containment of radioactivity for beyond design basis accidents arising from extreme natural events are essential for achieving the goal of elimination of emergency planning in public domain. Inherent safety characteristics, passive and engineered safety features to achieve these functions are discussed in this paper. Present trends and future developments in this direction are also described briefly.
Read the article online here.
Shankar, Mahesh, and T.V. Paul
Abstract
This article offers a discussion of nuclear doctrines and their significance for war, peace and stability between nuclear-armed states. The cases of India and Pakistan are analysed to show the challenges these states have faced in articulating and implementing a proper nuclear doctrine, and the implications of this for nuclear stability in the region. We argue that both the Indian and Pakistani doctrines and postures are problematic from a regional security perspective because they are either ambiguous about how to address crucial deterrence related issues, and/or demonstrate a severe mismatch between the security problems and goals they are designed to deal with, and the doctrines that conceptualize and operationalize the role of nuclear weapons in grand strategy. Consequently, as both India’s and Pakistan’s nuclear doctrines and postures evolve, the risks of a spiralling nuclear arms race in the subcontinent are likely to increase without a reassessment of doctrinal issues in New Delhi and Islamabad. A case is made for more clarity and less ambition from both sides in reconceptualizing their nuclear doctrines. We conclude, however, that owing to the contrasting barriers to doctrinal reorientation in each country, the likelihood of such changes being made—and the ease with which they can be made—is greater in India than in Pakistan.
Read the article online here.
Nagpal, Brig Atul
Abstract
Even when faced with the improbability of making much headway on terrorism and Kashmir in any resumed dialogue in the future, it remains important for India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue with each other. What both the countries must recognise is the failures and fallacies in policies and approaches so as to avoid points of saturation and allow proliferation of tracks of engagement. It will take a lot of time and patience to balance the trust-deficit.
Read the article online here.
