Q4 - 2009

S. No.	Title	Author	Description	Link	Link
001	Exploring Regional Zero - An Alternative Indian Nuclear Disarmament Strategy?	D. Suba Chandran	Since the 1940s, India has been passionately arguing for global nuclear disarmament. Regional and international events during 1960-80 forced India to look after its security interests, which resulted in India developing its own nuclear weapons programme. However, India still believes in global nuclear disarmament GND); which is the stated intention of its successive governments, India has repeatedly called for global nuclear disarmament.
002	OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLES TO ESTABLISHING A DEMOCRATIC STATE IN AFGHANISTAN	Dennis O. Young	After the Taliban regime was driven out of Afghanistan in late 2001, the United States and other members of the international community undertook efforts to establish and stabilize a liberal democratic form of government in that country. Such an undertaking is a monumental task, fraught with many obstacles and challenges. This paper looks at several of the obstacles to democracy in Afghanistan, to include the absence of a democratic history and tradition, an endemic culture of corruption, a pervasive narcotics trade and drug trafficking problem, tribalism and ethnic divides among the population, and finally the lack of support or assistance from neighboring Pakistan.
003	INDIA’S STRATEGIC DEFENSE TRANSFORMATION: EXPANDING GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS	Brian K. Hedrick	Following India’s independence in 1947, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru embarked on a foreign policy that was based on principles of socialism and remaining noncommittal to the emerging struggle between the Soviet Union and the countries forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-World War II period. Eventually, this policy led to India becoming one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1955. In practical terms, it placed India in a position of securing bilateral international commitments only in situations that were clearly neutral in nature or in cases of lastresort. The basic principles of nonalignment also governed the military relationships of the Indian defense establishment, resulting in limited military-tomilitary contacts, usually through United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions or training at foreign military schools. These practices were generally followed by his successors until the early 1990s when a changing geopolitical structure and an internal economic crisis began to challenge these principles.
004	The Afghanistan Decision	Paul Rogers	During October the Obama administration moved towards a decision on strengthening of US troop deployments in Afghanistan. Most sources in Washington indicated an expansion of around 40,000 troops, but some suggested up to 60,000. Even the former figure would take the US troop totals to well over 100,000 and NATO’s overall numbers in the country to around 140,000.
005	The Strategic Quagmire: Why Nation Building in Afghanistan is Failing	Anil Hira, PhD	NATO finds itself mired in quicksand in the Middle East. The goal of removing the immediate threat of terrorist- or rogue-state use of weapons of mass destruction has morphed into the push to create stable regimes that will not only behave more responsibly but govern more democratically. Yet there seems to be no overarching strategic direction about how to accomplish these goals, revealing the logical limitations and fallacies of strategic interventions. Using Afghanistan as an example we see that the only logical road to success in nation-building, should we choose to continue it, is long-term occupation.
006	Global Security after the War on Terror	Paul Rogers	In the months and years after the 9/11 attacks, a series of analyses published by Oxford Research Group offered a critical perspective on the war on terror, arguing that the forceful military response was both wrong and dangerous.1 It could even prove highly counterproductive to US security interests and would certainly do little to promote international peace and stability. While the response to 9/11 was readily understandable, given the appalling nature of the attacks but also the neoconservative overtones of the Bush administration, it was argued that it was deeply mistaken and would lead to a long period of war.
007	Revolting bodies, hysterical state: Women protesting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958)	Namrata Gaikwad	The Armed Forces Specia lPowers Act(1958) (AFSPA)has been debilitating for people in Manipur, already struggling with socio-economic and political marginalization since independence. The consistent erasure of Manipur by a pathetic and forgetful ‘mainland’ India provides the political impetus for anti-state groups demanding autonomy.The people of the state are, however, ambivalent about taking sides, having experienced the violence engendered by both factions. It is within this complexity that I situate my study of the AFSPA. My paper will elaborate on a theory of haunting, a metaphor I evoke to address this complexity of post colonial modernity and its silences, by focusing on the protesting icons of the Meira Paibi and Irom Sharmila. Examining the idea of haunting provides us with a vocabulary to push at the limits of rationality that both political movements and social sciences rely upon; haunting, then, is both a methodology and a theme that might help us account for lived realities that are far from rational, clear-cut and thus easy to access. The figure of Sharmila emerges then as one not only haunted by the violence of the post colonial moment but also simultaneously haunting us – isolated, confined and outlawed, she occupies a luminal position between the living and the dead, enacting a disruption that simply cannot be contained by the modern Indian state or even a rational social science seeking to represent her.
008	Obama’s Surge: The United States, Australia and the Second War for Afghanistan	ANTHONY BUBALO, Program Director / Lowy Institute for International Policy	What is the problem? President Obama’s announcement of a troop surge and the planned withdrawal of the Netherlands as lead nation in Oruzgan province in mid - 2010, where the bulk of Australia’s military contribution operates, raise a number of issues for Australia’s role in Afghanistan. In particular: • the potential and perhaps unintended impact of any new lead nation on the relative improvements in security that have been achieved in Oruzgan province ; • a possible demand for more Australian troops and greater flexibility in the way they are used in Afghanistan as the result of changes in US strategy; • and the effectiveness of Australia’s small but growing number of civilian and police personnel in Afghanistan.
009	Civil-Military Integration in Afghanistan	By Joshua W. Welle	On the heels of the Afghan presidential elections and General McChrystal’s 60-day mission assessment, changes to civilian-military C2 should be considered. This article argues why and how ISAF should reorganize its C2 structure to ensure true civilian-military integration.
010	Terrorism Monitor / Volume VII / Issue 38	The James Town Foundation	• New Hezbollah manifesto emphasizes political role In a united Lebanon By Rafd Fadhil Ali • Jihadis debate growing rift between Al-qaeda and the Taliban By Abdul Hameed Bakier • Military victory In South waziristan or the beginning of a long war? By Imtiaz Ali • Terror without frontiers: transnational terror plots expose Lashkar-E- Taiba’s global reach By Animesh Roul
011	SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION: AN ANTI-WESTERN ALIGNMENT?	Stephen Aris (aris@sipo.gess.ethz.ch)	The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is often portrayed as attempting to counter the increasing Western presence in Central Asia. However, as far as the member states are concerned, its main purpose is the management of intra-state and transnational security issues that its leaders regard as threats to the stability of their respective regimes. While the SCO is of limited military relevance, its economic potential is a source of interest for both its member states and states in surrounding regions.