Himalayan Watch

The New Government’s Promise

'Security'implies the state of being free from danger. Therefore, national security should mean that the nation state is free from any danger or threat. However, the state is not only the physical manifestation of land borders, but comprises of its people, for whom the state exists. Hence security of the society, groups and individuals from both military and non-military threats is paramount.

In between headlines of a BRICS bank and other successes at Fortaleza, Brazil in July 2014, there was another aspect to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech that had special relevance to cyber analysts. Addressing the conference, he said, “…while cyber space is a source of great opportunity, cyber security has become a major concern. BRICS countries, should take the lead in preserving Cyber Space, as a global common good. I am happy we are cooperating on this through our National Security Advisors.”

The revelations of Edward Snowden have opened up the case of snooping and the vulnerability of India in the realm of cyber security. According to reports, in 2013 India stood at fifth place in terms of cyber attacks; it was one of the most actively targeted in Asia by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that amassed 13.5 billion bits of information and 6.2 billion bits of metadata (Saxena, 2013). According to experts, the entire account of an individual’s professional and personal life can be assembled by analysing metadata.

Introduction

The Politics of Cartography and Border Settlement in the Western Sector

Colonial Intervention in Border Resolution and its Implications

An Unprepared India versus a Belligerent China

History is a contested space for political narrations, and no single country can lay undisputed claim over the narratives of past happenings. Sino-Indian border dispute falls under a similar realm of contested history. Despite sixteen rounds of talks between India and China on the ‘contentious boundary issue’, both countries have till date failed to come to agreeing terms on the issue of resolving border dispute.

Allegations of Aggression: The Blame-Game between India and China