Science Technology & Security Forum

Opinion

Stillborn Pangs of Stilwell Road

Standard portrayal of the North East has been that it is India’s periphery. Indeed, geography and to an extent socio-cultural realities have consigned it to the fringe of not only India’s nation-building enterprise, but also to the backwaters of the country’s collective consciousness. But the reality is that the region is not India’s periphery.

Himalayan Watch

GHQ Assists Kim Jong Un to Ignore U.N. Sanctions

National security in the context of the North East cannot confine itself to only the myriad insurgencies that dot its variegated landscape. It must take into account the strategic encirclement that the region is heir to. Surrounded by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal (the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom is placed a little afield, near the Siliguri corridor). 88 percent of the North East’s boundaries are international, with only 12 percent connecting it to mainland India. The borders in the North East must, therefore, lend itself to robust management.

Opinion

North East Security Council: The Need of the Hour

Reticent corners of the universe seldom come to light, unobtrusively concealing themselves from gaze and assay. The uncharted neuronal caverns of the brain of Homo sapiens, heir to countless stealth space, are among such quarters. The human brain is, after all, the most sophisticated objet d’art that creation has shaped. Nature ascertains that the behavioural patterns fractionate along genetic boundaries. Nurture—especially if it suits the sapient architecture that nature has fashioned—encourages the innateness.

Opinion

Talking to Belligerents in the North East

China has been working towards enhancing connectivity with the Southeast Asian nations under the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. This initiative, also known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will give a new impetus to regional and global connectivity. China’s connectivity strategy seems to be closely aligned with its military modernisation to ensure maritime security along the key sea lanes of communication.