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Showing posts from September, 2014

Don’t Let Pakistan's Military Hijack Democracy ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Haider Ali Hussein Mullick

Pakistani Parliment ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Waqas Usman)  Sources- The Diplomat As Washington mulls the Islamic State’s advances and Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, Pakistan’s democratically elected government is facing massive protests backed by some in the military and intelligence community. Led by Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri, thousands of protesters are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a year after his victory in an imperfect but nationally and internationally accepted election. With covert military support, Khan is also demanding new elections and Qadri a utopian political system overhaul. Pakistani democracy is messy but military dictatorship – direct or indirect – is not the answer. So the protesters should stop currying favor with the army, and Prime Minister Sharif should work with the protestors to find a constitutional solution that covers electoral and governance reforms. Washington should support democracy so nuclea

6 Mind-Blowing Tactical Tricks That Turned The Tide Of War ( Copy Right @ The Business Insider)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons Technology and manpower never guarantee a military victory by themselves. And neither can tactics and strategy - sometimes, it takes an extra measure of trickery and subterfuge to swing the tide on the battlefield. A group of Quora users sought to answer the question  " What are the most mind-blowing tricks used during any war?"  The answers provide a fascinating insight into some of the minds responsible for the most ingenious successes in the history of war. 1. Operation Mincemeat During World War II, the British launched a successful disinformation plan called Operation Mincemeat . The operation was created in an effort to convince the Germans that the Allies planned on invading Sardinia and Greece - instead of Sicily, where they actually landed in July of 1943. The operation was carried out successfully by obtaining the corpse of a homeless man in London, who was then given a false identity as a Major in the Royal Ma

India, Vietnam and $100 Million in Defense Credit ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Amruta Karambelkar)

Kilo class Submarine (Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy)  A  visit earlier this month  by its President Pranab Mukherjee saw India sign several memorandums of understanding with Vietnam. Among them, the extension of a line of credit worth $100 million on defense procurement is particularly significant. This deal gives  defense relations between India and Vietnam  another shot in the arm, and has important implications for both countries. India: Asserting Itself As India enters the third decade of its  Look East Policy , its engagement with its eastern neighbors has both widened and deepened. India has comprehensive bilateral partnerships in the region, as well as multilateral relationships through ASEAN. New Delhi’s defense diplomacy in the region has made strides in the last two decades, such that India is now considered an important and welcome security partner in Southeast Asia. India’s regional cooperation in defense has generally entailed high-level vi

India starts working on its largest Aircraft Carrier ( News Credits- UNI)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Indian Navy Having two aircraft carriers already in the fleet, India has started working on second indigenous aircraft carrier, that would be the largest warship of Indian Navy. INS Vikramaditya of Russian origin in 45,000 tonnes category was recently inducted in the Navy, while INS Virat having water displacement capacity of 28,000 tonne has been in service for more than two decades. India's own aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was launched last year, which is undergoing series of vigorous sea trials at present. Rear Admiral Anil Kumar Saxena, Director General in Directorate of Naval Designed (DND) in an exclusive interview to UNI, said, "We have reached at the stage of conceptualisation and the requirements of the vessel are being frozen, keeping in mind the future needs of the nation." Although the weight of the ship will be fixed once all the requirements are frozen, but the future aircraft carrier should be in the range of 60 thousa

Indian Prime Minister Modi in the United States: What to Watch ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Alyssa Ayres)

Image credits- Narendra Modi via flickr.com Indian Prime Minister Modi arrives in the United States this weekend, for a five-day visit split between New York and Washington, DC. He’ll have a  full program  in New York to start, with a speech at the UN General Assembly, numerous meetings with CEOs, speeches here at  CFR  and at the  Global Citizen Festival  in Central Park, and the headline-topping gathering of his closest 18,000 friends in the Indian American community at  Madison Square Garden  (to be simulcast in Times Square as well). That would be a heady program on its own. But he’ll have an equally full program in Washington, which he will reach late Monday afternoon. President Obama will host him for a small, exclusive working dinner (over which the Indian press has begun to perseverate, since Mr. Modi will be on a lemon water and honey  fast  for Navratri). He will have discussions with the president, and other senior members of the administration will call on him. Vice

China's Choice: India or Pakistan? ( Copy Right @ The Diplomat, Author- Mu Chunshan)

Among China’s relations with Asian neighbors, its ties with the countries in South Asia are generally considered to be the weakest. Now, with Sino-Japan tensions over the East China Sea and conflict with many Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea, the role of South Asian countries has become more prominent. South Asia is now a focus in China’s regional strategy, as shown by President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the area. When it comes to South Asia, people think of India and Pakistan first. China has an “all weather friendship” with Pakistan but an ambivalent, often testy relationship with India. But the future is sometimes different from both the past and the present. Moving forward,  which country is more important for China? Even without a clear answer, just puzzling through this question can help make many issues clear. In fact, we only to need to answer two questions to know whether India or Pakistan is more important for China. First, which one is a major

Why India's Mars mission is so cheap - and thrilling ( Copy Right @ The BBC, Author- Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent)

The Mangalyaan satellite was confirmed to be in orbit shortly after 0800, Indian time. It is, without doubt, a considerable achievement. This is a mission that has been budgeted at 4.5bn rupees ($74m), which, by Western standards, is staggeringly cheap. The American Maven orbiter that arrived at the Red Planet on Monday is costing almost 10 times as much. Back in June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even quipped that India's real-life Martian adventure was costing less than the make-believe Hollywood film Gravity. Even Bollywood sci-fi movies like Ra.One cost a good chunk of what it has taken to get Mangalyaan to Mars. So how has India done it? For sure, people costs are less in this populous nation, and the scientists and engineers working on any space mission are always the largest part of the ticket price. Home-grown components and technologies have also been prioritised over expensive foreign imports. But, in addition, India has been careful to do th

The Great-Power Summit Most Americans Don't Know About ( Copy Right @ The National Interest, Author-Ray Vickery, Michael Kugelman )

Image credits- Narendra Modi With the United States consumed by foreign-policy crises around the globe, many Americans are not according much importance to the  upcoming summit  between President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, many Americans likely have no idea it is even happening. Americans should care about Modi’s visit because of the tremendous strategic significance of the country he leads. With over 1.2 billion people (a sixth of all humanity), the world’s third largest economy (on a purchasing power basis), the third largest army, nuclear-weapons capability, rocket technology to put a satellite around Mars at one ninth the NASA cost (and on the first try) and a deep reservoir of young, talented workers, India has the ability to help the United States tackle an array of major international challenges. High on this list is Islamist terrorism. On December 13, 2001, just three months after the United States experienced the 9/11 attacks,

The Real Threat from China's Military: Going "Rogue" ( Copy Right @ The National Interest, Author- Gordon G Chang)

Image credits-Wikimedia Commons/ United States Department of Defence Chinese leader Xi Jinping was humiliated during his just-completed meeting with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, turning the long-awaited summit into a “fiasco,” according to one observer. Sino-Indian relations, which were supposed to be propelled to new heights last week, now look troubled, at least in the short term. In mid-September, Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual Control, the demarcation of the disputed China-India border, in the Chumar section of eastern Ladakh, high in the Himalayas. Reinforcements brought their number up to battalion strength, about 1,000 soldiers, according to reports. Although the Sino-Indian boundary there is ill defined, it was clear China’s commanders intended to create a provocation as they advanced several kilometers on the Indian side of the temporary line. Last Wednesday, while meeting Modi in Ahmedabad, Xi said he had ordered his forces to return to the Chinese