210 books
This tells the story of six months in the life of a 29-year-old woman from Taiwan, Gao Mei Lin, who returns home from India after having travelled alone, most importantly pursuing her interest in Buddhism. During the next six months of Gao Mei Lin’s life, leading up and ending with her 30th birthday party in her home town of Hualien, she wrestles with two major themes.
The first theme has to do with Mei Lin’s religious or spiritual transformation from ...
The Bay of Bengal is an area growing in economic and strategic importance, derived from its position as the principal maritime connection between the Pacific and Indian Oceans and from the good economic prospects of many Bay of Bengal states. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) regional integration process has made substantial progress in recent years. The Bay of Bengal could become the key economic ...
India is still a young nation state with an amazing legacy of civilisational and cultural consciousness. The long history of the freedom movement produced enviable political leaders and activists, with profound ethical and moral norms. The venerable Mahatma Gandhi epitomised the moral values and instilled the same amongst his followers - from Sardar Patel to Nehru. Nehru had an abhorrence for maintaining or modernising a military force, was suspicious about any ...
This book enunciates a possible National Security Strategy for India, as part of a grand strategy, in which India aims at achieving its purported aspiration of becoming “a regional power by 2030” and a “major global power by 2050”. The book emphasizes that, other than ‘hard’ power to deal with external threats, the country needs to develop economically, and achieve its purported political and developmental goals and objectives. ...
Since the beginning of time, they have existed among the deep sea predators and the waves of the perilous ocean. A marine biologist Dr Jade Bowers stumbled across a mysterious recording of underwater sounds; she launched a scientific investigation only to uncover the existence of a creature that was thought to be a myth. In search of conclusive proof, she and her research team find partly digested remains of an animal. The remains were strange and no one could ...
The 1971 war for the Liberation of Bangladesh was a landmark conflict in the history of South Asia. It dramatically changed the map of this region and marked a historical revival of Indian military power. In just 13 glorious and action packed days – three Indian corps sized spear heads raced for the capital city of Dacca. It was located in the most defensible, riverine terrain in the world. Yet the Indian Blitzkrieg bounced the wide rivers using Helicopters ...
The declaration of the caliphate by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on June 29, 2014, caught the attention of the entire globe. Although earlier there had been the rise of the Taliban and the Islamic Republic of Iran which became topics of discussion across the world, the ripples which the emergence of the Islamic State created surpassed all similar precedents. One of the significant differences between the Islamic State and others is that the former has challenged the very ...
This is the Military History of the Mohyals - an Indian clan of fighting Brahmins. They are Saraswat Brahmins who dwelt on the banks of the ancient river Saraswati - that once flowed from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. As such they came in the path of each and every invader who came to loot or subjugate India. The warrior sage, Parshuram, had militarised them in the early epic period. From priests these Brahmins had morphed into Mohyal fighting Brahmins, brave ...
A coup attempt in the Maldives in November 1988 sent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom into hiding. Operation Cactus was India’s military intervention in the island nation at Male’s behest to rescue President Gayoom and restore his democratically elected government.
Launching an airborne operation more than 2,500 km away–at short notice and without much intelligence–was a difficult choice. Nonetheless, the decision was deliberate, bold, and ...
The rise of Asia has been touted to be an extremely significant global phenomenon. The EU has sought convergence on global issues, regional security matters as well as regulatory policy and other economic issues with the countries in the region especially India. A close and consistent approach towards monitoring of EU-India relations is therefore called for particularly in the light of the long and enduring economic partnership and a serious and meaningful ...
India and Iran as two ancient civilisations have historically shared cordial relations with some occasional challenges. One such challenge in recent years came up when Iran was placed under international economic and political sanctions due to its nuclear programme. These sanctions, especially the unilateral ones, also had adverse implications on India-Iran bilateral ties. This posed several challenges for Indian foreign policy and diplomacy towards maintaining ...
China and Japan have been at loggerheads over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands for well over two decades now. With no end to the dispute in sight, and agreements breaking down, it appears as if a new theatre in the Asia-Pacific region has been activated. This monograph is an exercise in determining as to what extent China is willing and capable of operating in a new theatre. To change the status quo of the East China Sea (ECS) unilaterally through the use force or ...
Armed conflicts have become more complicated, with the emphasis shifting towards new weapons such as drones, cybercrime and autonomous weapons. In July 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This treaty prohibits a full range of nuclear-weapon-related activities, such as undertaking to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, as well as ...
China, today, is the focus of discussions due to its actions, particularly in the South China Sea, where territorial disputes have affected the stability of the region. The book contends that China’s actions have not contributed to promoting confidence amongst its smaller neighbours who cannot flex their muscles in any dispute. This is even more relevant in the context of China’s rejection of the award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The wanton ...
History and Geography Delineate the Operation of Power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the spatial angle, Jeremy Black argues that just as the perception of power is central to issues of power, so place, and its constraints and relationships, is partly a matter of perception, not merely map coordinates. Geopolitics, he maintains, is as much about ideas and perception as it ...
The Battle of Daruchhian, a Saga of Valour and Sacrifice” is an account of a battle in which in a matter of less than twelve hours a total of eight officers, seven JCOs and one hundred and forty nine ORs were killed, wounded or missing. Those who survived came back with their heads held high not only for what their compatriots did but also their own contributions towards achieving the objective. But it was doomed for failure from the beginning.
Normally we ...
The end of the Cold War was supposed to usher in an era of peace based on flourishing democracies and free market economies worldwide. Instead, new wars, including the war on terrorism, have threatened international, regional, and individual security and sparked a major refugee crisis. This volume of essays on international humanitarian interventions focuses on what interests are promoted through these interventions and how efforts to build liberal democracies ...
National Security involves multiple stakeholders working synergistically in a volatile and ambiguous security environment. In such a scenario, defence officers must develop multiple skill-sets to remain effective. Wider Horizon by Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam (Retd) is a commendable effort in pursuit of this larger objective. His passion for academic pursuit and research in areas related to military history and national security is praiseworthy.
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Pakistan Army is the most organised, powerful and influential institution in the country. It proclaims to protect not only the territorial frontiers of the state but the very ideology of the nation as well. The institution, through various means and mechanisms, controls Grand National Narrative (GNN) in Pakistan and strongly resists any attempt on part of other stakeholders to introduce changes having potential to weaken its hold in the system. It has fairly ...
Most of us are either too enamoured or too intimidated with the internet and other cyber infrastructure and tend to take extreme views, declaring it the panacea for all ills or the mother of all evils. Cyber crime, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism have been so intricately embedded in the current ‘security zeitgeist’ that any discourse, technology integration and capability assimilation without multifaceted foci on these, remains diffused and ...