Holistic Approach and ‘Enduring International Rivalry’
Holistic Approach and ‘Enduring International Rivalry’
Problematizing the Individualistic Approach
Allegations of Aggression: The Blame-Game between India and 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.
No First Use (NFU) and punitive retaliation have been core components of India’s deterrence based Nuclear Doctrine. As much as this is an a priori concept, the fact that New Delhi has never been embroiled in an all out nuclear war with either Pakistan or China, is testimony enough of its credibility. After all, it is argued that the only utility of nuclear weapons is to prevent a nuclear war in the first place.
Space has fascinated human’s imagination for long. Since the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik,in 1957 by the erstwhile USSR, significant progress towards developing technologies for conducting multiple activities in space has taken place. Presently, human beings are trying to reach new heights up into the outer space and are found attempting to reveal the mysteries of the universe.Various countries in the world are investing in space programmes to explore multiple scientific, technological, industrial and security benefits.
'Tsu-NaMo' has become the new word to describe Narendra Modi's spectacular victory in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in which he, as the Prime Ministerial candidate, guided his party, the centre – right Bharatiya Janata Party, to a clear majority. After winning 282 seats in the 543-seat lower house of the Parliament, Modi-led BJP will certainly have more elbowroom in driving India’s foreign policy.
Dissent in China is not something new. A long tradition of political dissent is an integral part of Chinese history and owes much to Confucianism and Daoism. Despite the fact that Confucianism and the state has been historically fraught with conflict and tensions, the same Confucian doctrines that provided moral justifications for state control and power were also used against cruel and tyrannical rulers who could not deliver honest, compassionate and conscientious rule.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the sole recognized 'international' body that studies the scientific, technical and socio-economic effects of climate change, has come out with yet another report in 2014, which has gone one step ahead this time to include a chapter on 'human security'. The Working Group II that collates scientific information regarding Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, has provided details with regard to the ways in which climate change would affect cultures, values and societies.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), established in 1985 can be seen as an attempt to foster cooperation that never quite took off, in a region that has been marred by conflicts and animosity in spite of geographical and cultural similarities. The formation was initiated by Bangladesh's Ziaur Rahman and taken forward by India's Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, in an attempt to overturn the hostility that characterizes the region. Political will to necessitate cooperation still evades most of its members.