2016: a year of dramatic changes in South Asia

Harsh V Pant reflects on how developments in 2016 highlight that the Modi government is gradually altering the foundations of Indian foreign policy. He notes that India’s non-committal attitude to the 17th non-alignment summit, combative Pakistan policy, and efforts to woo the US and key neighbours all indicate the South Asian strategic milieu is in flux and old rules no longer apply

An aspirational India on the global stage

As India turns 75, the LSE South Asia Centre will publish commemorative posts till August 2023 to dwell upon India from multiple perspectives. In this post, Harsh V. Pant discusses the emerging priorities in India’s foreign policy, and where an ‘India First’ engagement with the global order — stemming from its domestic socio-economic realities & aspirations — may lead India in future years

The Growing Complexity of Sino-Indian Ties

View the Executive SummaryAccording to most political observers, the global political architecture is undergoing a transformation with power increasingly shifting from the West to the East. The two most populous nations on the earth, China and India, are on their way to becoming economic powerhouses and are shedding their reticence in asserting their global profiles, making their relationship of still greater importance for the international system. The evolution of Sino-Indian ties over the last few decades and the constraints that continue to inhibit this relationship from achieving its full potential are examined. The implications of this for the United States and the wider international system are discussed.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1494/thumbnail.jp

India\u27s Changing Afghanistan Policy: Regional and Global Implications

View the Executive SummarySince 2001, the situation in Afghanistan has afforded New Delhi an opportunity to underscore its role as a regional power. India has a growing stake in the development of peace and stability in Afghanistan; and the 2011 India-Afghan strategic partnership agreement underlines India’s commitment to ensure that a positive momentum in Delhi-Kabul ties is maintained. This monograph examines the changing trajectory of Indian policy toward Afghanistan since 2001, and it is argued that New Delhi has been responding to a strategic environment shaped by other actors in the region. U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are preparing to leave Afghanistan in 2014, and India stands at a crossroads as it remains keen to preserve its interests in Afghanistan. The ever-evolving Indian policy in Afghanistan is examined in three phases before implications of this change for the region and the United States are drawn. There has been a broader maturing of the U.S.-India defense ties, and Afghanistan is likely to be a beneficiary of this trend. Managing Pakistan and unravelling Islamabad’s encirclement complex should be the biggest priority for both Washington and New Delhi in the coming years if there is to be any hope of keeping Afghanistan a stable entity post-2014.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1534/thumbnail.jp

India in Space: Factors Shaping the Indian Trajectory

By launching its space probe to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, on 22 October 2008, India joined the United States (U.S.), Japan, Europe, Russia, and China in this accomplishment. The principal goal of the probe was to conduct mapping of the lunar surface, and among the scientific payloads it carried two were from the United States and three from the European Space Agency (ESA). This was a unique mission as it was an attempt to map highresolution, 3-D topography of entire Moon, get mineral composition of surface, and investigate the availability of water and Helium-3. Chandrayaan-1 operated until August 2009, coming to an abrupt end after 312 days, as opposed to the intended two years. Despite the setback, Chandrayaan-1 did achieve 95 percent of its planned objectives, and made the significant discovery of water ice molecules on the lunar surface

Cell state dependent effects of Bmal1 on melanoma immunity and tumorigenicity

The circadian clock regulator Bmal1 modulates tumorigenesis, but its reported effects are inconsistent. Here, we show that Bmal1 has a context-dependent role in mouse melanoma tumor growth. Loss of Bmal1 in YUMM2.1 or B16-F10 melanoma cells eliminates clock function and diminishes hypoxic gene expression and tumorigenesis, which could be rescued by ectopic expression of HIF1α in YUMM2.1 cells. By contrast, over-expressed wild-type or a transcriptionally inactive mutant Bmal1 non-canonically sequester myosin heavy chain 9 (Myh9) to increase MRTF-SRF activity and AP-1 transcriptional signature, and shift YUMM2.1 cells from a Sox10to a Sox9immune resistant, mesenchymal cell state that is found in human melanomas. Our work describes a link between Bmal1, Myh9, mouse melanoma cell plasticity, and tumor immunity. This connection may underlie cancer therapeutic resistance and underpin the link between the circadian clock, MRTF-SRF and the cytoskeleton

India as a regional security provider : from activism to forced diffidence

India’s economic rise and concomitant expansion of its military capabilities has engendered calls for New Delhi to assume greater responsibility in the management of regional security, especially in its immediate vicinity. But while India’s growing role as a security provider in East and South-east Asia as well as in the larger Indian Ocean region is garnering a lot of attention, it is in India’s immediate neighbourhood that New Delhi finds itself constrained to an unprecedented degree. This paper examines India’s role as a regional security provider by looking into four categories of security governance (assurance, prevention, protection and compellence). It argues that India’s role as a regional security provider will remain circumscribed by the peculiar regional constraints India faces