Peace and Disarmament
THE recent Quad leaders meeting in the White House on September 24 appears to have shifted focus away from its original framing as a security dialogue between four countries, the US, India, Japan and Australia. … Read moreAUKUS, Quad and India’s Losing the Plot Internationally
MORE than 12 years have passed since the India US nuclear deal was signed. Pranab Mukherjee, then India’s External Affairs Minister, and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, signed the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation … Read moreLooking Back at the India US Nuclear Deal
THIS August 6, 80 years after the first use of the atom bomb against a section of humanity, reminds us all of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and the threat to all human lives. But … Read moreRemembering Hiroshima and the Threat of Nuclear Extinction
AS part of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package announced by the government supposedly to boost the Covid-impacted economy, the finance minister declared that all sectors of the economy would henceforth be open … Read morePrivatisation in Space: Lurking Dangers & Poor Prospects
WITH the US walking out of the Open Skies Agreement, the US is signalling to the world that it intends to return to days of Pax Americana that existed post Second World War, when it … Read moreUS Abandons Open Skies for New Age Space Weapons
THE intricate war dance among the US, the Saudis and Iran on the Houthi attack on Aramco oil installations may still not spill over into a shooting war in West Asia. The Saudi defence ministry … Read moreThe Days of US Dominance in West Asia are Over
SAUDI Arabia, which started the Yemen war with its own coalition of the willing, is now facing the blow-back with Houthis launching a series of drone and missile attacks on infrastructure. Earlier Houthi missile attacks on Dubai … Read moreWest Asia: Cheap Drones and the Shifting Strategic Balance
THE New York Times recent report that the US Cyber Command has planted “malware” – read cyber bombs – deep into the Russian grid, should worry not just the Russian people, but all of us. Taking down … Read moreCyber Bombs, the Russian Grid and the Threat of War
EINSTEIN was once asked of the kind of weapons that could be used in a Third World War. He said he could not predict weapons that would be used in the Third World War, but … Read moreModi and Trump Want to Send Us Back to the Stone Age
NOW, that the excitement and self-congratulatory chest-thumping over India’s successful testing of its anti-satellite missile (ASAT) capability on March 27, 2019 has passed, except of course for continuous misuse in political campaigns by PM Modi, … Read moreIndia’s Anti-Satellite Missile: Beyond the Euphoria
THE second crash of a Boeing 737 Max8 aircraft on March 17 killing all 158 passengers and crew, this time operated by Ethiopian Airlines en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, six months after an … Read moreBoeing 737 Max: Design Flaws, Regulatory Failure
THE air strikes by India across the Line of Control (LoC) have been accompanied by much chest-thumping by the prime minister, by government and ruling party spokespersons, and camp-follower TV and other media personalities. This … Read moreAir strikes and Defence Preparedness