The political controversy generated over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s participation in the Commonwealth Summit (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka on November 15 deepens mounting concerns about our foreign policy being increasingly determined not by our overal....
What is to be made of a society, people and country whose political leadership erupts in anger and weaves bizarre conspiracy theories because its self-declared ‘enemy no. 1’ is eliminated in a drone attack by a country which has not only accorded....
On 25 October 2013, the Iranian State News Agency reported that fourteen Iranian border guards were killed and five wounded in clashes with “armed bandits” near Saravan on Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan. There were also reports of thr....
In the dynamics of history and the variables which govern the course of political sociology, historians do not make history. They only record its course and describe the forces and narrate the events, which are a reality that the historians cannot di....
First Impressions: Uncertainty, yes; but also Optimism about future The creeping sense of despondency, even defeatism, over the future of Afghanistan post 2014 that seems to have set in among a section of the strategic community and top pol....
1.0 Background The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) started 'People's War' in Nepal in 1996 with the twin objective of abolishing monarchy and establishing a communist republic. During this conflict, the nation bleeded and suffered heavy ....
VIF organized a round table discussion focusing on Afghanistan on 11th October 2013. Participants in the discussion included Mr. Ajit Doval, KC, Director VIF, Gen. (retd) N. C. Vij, Lt. Gen. (retd) Ravi Sawhney, Amb G. Parthasarathy, Amb S....
Afghanistan was the main focus of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit held in September this year at the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Though there was some distraction caused by the Syrian crisis with all the members supporting non-inter....
Lt. Gen Ravi Sawhney, Distinguished Fellow and Sushant Sareen, Senior Fellow, VIF, were invited by the Afghan Institute of Strategic Studies to attend the prestigious Second Herat Security Dialogue on 5-6, October, 2013. Around 80 foreign delegates f....
Mentioning toned down expectations from his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart at New York, Shri Manmohan Singh gave an advance signal that nothing substantial would emerge from it.Until almost the last moment, we let uncertainty hang over the de....