Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

INS Arihant ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Indian Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar New Delhi’s first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine has passed all of its sea-trials and is ready to be formally inducted into the Indian Navy. According to Indian media reports, the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine has been undergoing a series of diving tests and weapons trials over the past five months. “It has passed all tests and in many things has surpassed our expectations,” a senior India Navy official told the Economic Times. “Technically the submarine can now be commissioned at any time.” Called the Arihant, the 6,000-ton displacement submarine—which draws heavily from Russian technology—carries twelve indigenous K-15 Sagarika missiles with a range of 435 miles. Or, alternatively, it can carry four K-4 nuclear-tipped ballistic missile—each with a range of 2,200 miles. However, unlike U.S. ballistic missile submarines, the Indian

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author-  McDaniel Wicker North Korea’s latest rocket launch has led officials in both Seoul and Tokyo to call for a strong response. In light of Pyongyang’s numerous provocative actions, the United States’ closest allies in East Asia are rightly concerned about the regime. These concerns require Washington to act decisively to emphasize its commitment to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and, more broadly, across the Asia-Pacific region. Toward this end, the current alliance structure must be revamped to create a stronger defense partnership between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea. A stronger trilateral alliance would ease the overall strain on the United States’ defense capabilities. Moreover, current geopolitical realities make such alliance-building more possible now than at any time in recent memory. Until recently, close cooperation between South Korea and Japan seemed impossible. Hist

Credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author-  Zack Cooper & Eric B. Lorber OVER THE LAST five years, the United States has struggled to influence Chinese behavior. Washington’s responses to Beijing’s increasingly assertive activities—ranging from economic espionage to artificial island construction—have been largely ineffective. Yet U.S. leaders are now considering a new option: economic sanctions. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S.-Chinese economic relationship is “too big to fail” and that Washington therefore has little economic leverage with Beijing. Indeed, U.S. policymakers should be realistic that extensive sanctions against China would be unwise and infeasible. Nevertheless, certain limited, conduct-based sanctions may be able to shape Chinese behavior at an acceptable cost. The surprising aspect of the debate in Washington over whether to sanction China is that it took so long to emerge; within the last decade, the United States has sanctioned