India, US in East Asia : emerging strategic partnership

India and the United States are gradually emerging as strategic partners in Asia. What are the prospects of this strategic partnership for the region

The strategic significance of the US-India logistics agreement

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Manjeet S. Pardesi, Asia Studies Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington, explains that “Contrary to international relations theories, the signing of the LEMOA demonstrates that India is seeking regional primacy, not hegemony, and this is compatible with America’s strategic interests in South Asia/Indian Ocean.

The militarisation of central Asia – a new great game?

Captain Arthur Connolly of the British East India Company coined the phrase, ‘The Great Game’, in mid-1800s, to describe the contest for supremacy between Czarist Russia and Victorian England in Central Asia. At the start of the 21st century, more than a decade after the implosion of the former Soviet Union, energy and mineral rich Central Asia (the region comprising Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), has regained its strategic significance, and is again set to play a key role in geopolitics. The significance of Central Asia lies in its geostrategic location – with Russia to its north, China to its east, Iran and Afghanistan to its south – and its natural resources. Central Asia is an energy rich region with abundant natural gas, oil, hydel power, and rich deposits of Uranium. Central Asia is also home to large deposits of precious metals such as gold and silver. However, this time around, the players have changed. Russia will continue to be a player, thanks to geography, and will be joined by the United States and two Asian powers – China and India. The players of this ‘New Great Game’ are vying for military bases in this strategically vital region. The chess moves in this international power play interacting with Central Asia’s political, economic, ethnic, and religious faultlines are producing a complicated security dynamics with profound strategic consequences for the region and the world at large

Impact of RMA on conventional deterrence : a theoretical analysis

This research aims to theoretically study if deterrence will prevail and when states with RMA-ed militaries are faced with the prospect of convetional war. To answer this question, this study analyses the impact of transformation on conventional deterrence in the event of a military standoff for three theoretical scenarios - (1) RMA capable conventional military vs. RMA-incapable conventional military (with the former state being nuclear or non-nuclear and iwth the later bing non-nuclear), (2) two RMA-capable conventional militaries (both states non-nuclear) and (3) two RMA-capable conventional militaries (both states nuclear). The study concludes that the current defense transformation is revolutionary simply because it permits the possibility of a limited conventional armed conflict between two nuclear weapons states (including great powers) and as such attempts to resuscitate the role of conventional military power in international politics. On the other hand, analogous to the nuclear revolution, the possession of RMA capabilities by two non-nuclear belligerents is likely to render large-scale conventional armed conflicts with unlimited military objectives between them unthinkable. However, this study warns that deterrence is weakened when only one state in an adversarial dyad is RMA-capable. Moreover, in any dyad involving RMA-capable states, deterrence is weakened when the RMA-capable state contemplates a strategy of limited aims (political and/or military) vis-a-vis its adversary. This tendency is all the more pronounced when it is contemplating a limited war waged with air power and missile strikes (low-cost, low-risk) than a limited war for territorial gains

American global primacy and the rise of India

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/As China asserts itself economically and militarily, the United States is faced with maintaining a balance of power in East Asia and safe-guarding its global dominance. In contrast to its competitive position with China, the US relationship with India--projected to be the third-largest economy by 2030--is set on a more collaborative course. American support for a rising India aligns with its broader security and strategic goals. India, for its part, remains intent on achieving a position of regional primacy, but welcomes the US presence in the South Asia/Indian Ocean region. The two nations, for example, have signed an agreement giving each other access to military facilities, and they conduct many bilateral military exercises. These developments are a far cry from the mid-twentieth century, when Jawaharlal Nehru called for the removal of all foreign militaries from Asia. What factors pushed the India-US relationship in this new direction? And what shared interests and goals does the partnership reinforce

Vide pax Americana? exploring the desirability and viability of American global hegemony in the 21st century.

This essay has two key objectives, to explore the reasons (1) why American leadership is desirable in the current great power system, and (2) why America will never become a global hegemon.Master of Science (Strategic Studies