Articles

India must not lower its guard along LAC with China

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

The continued discussions between the military commanders and diplomats of the two sides resolved most of the issues over the past four-and-a-half years. China’s transgressions over a large frontage along its Line of Actual Control with India in....

October 26, 2024 International Relations and Diplomacy , China , Article , China , LAC , India News , DH Spotlight

Viksit Bharat and Surakshit Bharat: Wheels of the Same Chariot

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

India aspires to be and is steadily on the way to be a developed nation by 2047, and to which end, Viksit Bharat and Surakshit Bharat (Prosperous India, Secure India) are wheels of the same chariot, being driven in the same direction. I....

September 30, 2024 National Security and Strategic Studies , Defence , Article , China , GDP , LAC , Ladakh , buffer zones , Viksit Bharat , friction points , PLA Surakshi Bharat

Future Politico-diplomatic Initiatives with China and the Border Dispute

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

The phase of intense politico-diplomatic relationship between India and China got over in May 2020, having lasted nearly thirty years plus. Of the guiding mantras of diplomacy and deterrence, the former was centre-stage, and the latter was underplaye....

July 03, 2024 International Relations and Diplomacy , China , Article , India , China , PLA , Aksai Chin , Trade Deficit , LAC , Corps Commanders level talks , patrol clashes

Contemporary Land-Centric Operational Environment: Need for Dynamism and Adaptability

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

It was half a decade ago, when the ‘strategic community’ commonly opined that conventional wars were passe, and if and when future wars did occur, they would ‘likely to be ambiguous, uncertain, short, swift, lethal, intense, precise, non-linear....

January 09, 2024 National Security and Strategic Studies , Defence , Article , LoC , Military technology , LAC , Drones , Army manpower , Counter terrorism grid

Defence Preparedness – A Study Group Report

The purpose of constituting the Study Group on Defence Preparedness was to delve into the issues confronting the nation’s defence preparedness. The focus herein was directed at preservation of the nation’s territorial integrity in the face of Chi....

December 22, 2023 National Security and Strategic Studies , Defence , PLA , Indian Ocean , Defence Preparedness , Defence industry , LAC , Defence Logistics

Tibet: The Fulcrum of China’s Strategic Policy in the Himalayas

Jayadeva Ranade Article

China is positioning Tibet as the fulcrum for its strategic policy in the sensitive Himalayan region thus directly and adversely impacting India. Beijing appears to have assessed that it has sufficiently calmed the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to fe....

December 05, 2023 International Relations and Diplomacy , Neighbourhood Studies , China , Tibet , Article , Nepal , PLA , LAC , Tibet , TAR , Wang Yi , Wakhan Corridor , Nyingchi , Golmud airport , mega dam

A Waning Conventional Deterrence- A National Security Portent

Air Marshal Diptendu Choudhury (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VM, VSM, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

The last decade has been awash with incidents of Chinese belligerence on India’s borders, in the North and North East. The long period of supposed peace and tranquility has actually worked to the strategic advantage of China as it enabled a widespr....

September 22, 2023 International Relations and Diplomacy , China , Article , China , PLAAF , IAF , LAC , Tibet , PLAN , deterrence , multi domain

Does Absence of ‘War’ Mean Peace, in Indian context?

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

A narrow definition of peace is that it is opposite to concept of war, implying where there is no war, there is peace! Again, in a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a non-existence of war and freedom from fear of violence. The proposition ....

August 07, 2023 International Relations and Diplomacy , Article , China , War , CCP , Peace , LoC , LAC , Sun Tzu , Influence Operations

China: “Soft use” of “Hard power”

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

China’s geopolitical aims and global ambitions are not a secret. President Xi sees China the most pre-eminent power in Asia and eventually, the world, consolidating trans-continental routes and waterways, and assured political influence among large....

July 03, 2023 International Relations and Diplomacy , China , Article , India , Soft Power , PLA , COVID-19 , LAC , Galwan , Hard power

Neighborhood News Digest – 29 June 2023

Afghanistan

Taliban supreme leader Akhundzada orders to free 2,178 prisoners For Eid-al Adha – Devdiscourse

According to the Supreme Court, the Supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada released orders to free 2,1....

June 29, 2023 VIF Neighbourhood News Digest , Pakistan , Nepal , Maldives , Myanmar , Sri Lanka , Afghanistan , Bhutan , Bangladesh , Imran Khan , World Bank , IMF , LAC , UN , Military Coup , drug trafficking , debt restructuring , Jack Ma , Adani Power , Same-sex marriage