The Chanakya Dialogues
The Chanakya Dialogues Watch The Sessions
I am becoming increasingly more confident at answering the inevitable question about Pakistan that is thrown at me in seminars, interviews and interactions on geopolitics. The question revolves around Pakistan’s…
Introduction Role models like Rishi Sunak, PM of the UK, and Ajay Banga, recently appointed President of World Bank, bolster Punjab’s image, giving it a larger-than-life narrative. The community is…
“On 29th May 2023, ISRO successfully launched the GSLV-F12 NVS-01 mission, deploying the second-generation NavIC satellite into space. The NVS-01 satellite is the first of the new series aimed at…
“The situation in Manipur has not yet been resolved, the violence not yet abated and the actual truth not yet clear. Much of the narrative you hear about the violence…
The Indian state of Karnataka went to elections on May 2023. It was surprising to note how the Chinese media gave coverage to a state election in India, a phenomenon…
Nuclear Deterrent Dynamics “The sole purpose of India’s nuclear deterrence is to deter adversaries use or threat of use of nuclear weapons” Dr Manpreet Sethi Indian nuclear deterrence…
When the South China Morning Post wrote a rather surprising piece on the new selection criteria for PLA recruits, one particular condition – “Any applicant – even for non-combat positions…
In a cornerstone advancement towards indigenization of battlefield capability, the Indian Air Force (IAF) received its first consignment of ALS-50 indigenous Loitering Munitions (LM) from Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL)…
In a much-needed policy initiative, the Government of India decided to redeploy military attaches to countries where they can help increase domestic defence exports. This will reduce the number of…
The initiative on Self-reliance and Atmanirbhar Bharat has propelled the Indian defence industry towards higher pursuits and undertaking ambitious projects. The Indian defence industry, specifically the aerospace industry, has paved…
International Affairs
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Emerging Bhutanese Intransigence
By Maj Gen Ashok Kumar (Retd)
Peaceful Pakistan: A Utopian Vision?
By Mudasir Dar
Pakistan – Withering State
By Lt Gen K J Singh (Retd)
Surviving The Burnout: A Virtual Coup By The Pakistan Army Is Already In The Making
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
The General’s Desk
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
OP-ED
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President Biden, Please Transit from the 20th to the 21st Century
By Prof Madhav Das Nalapat
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India is Only Aligned to its National Interest
By Kanwal Sibal
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Amar Jawan Jyoti – Needless Controversy
By Kanwal Sibal
Cockpit Conversation
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Policy & governance
View All G20 In Srinagar : Threats And Opportunities
With two days left for the G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting in Srinagar on May 22-24, 2023, national and international focus on this unusual event is becoming rife. There are more than 200 meetings undertaken with the G20 banner all over India, since India is the Chair
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
Financial Sanctions – Hastening The US Economic Decline?
With the pivotal role played by the US military-industrial complex in WW II, the US displaced Britain as the dominant global economy and since then the US dollar has been the world’s dominant currency. This is consistent with the dollar’s wide international use as t
By Col Deepak Kumar
India’s Rising Defence Exports – Can India Be A Major Arms Exporter?
The official declaration of India’s defence exports in 2021-22 to be at an all-time high of Rs 15,920 crores marks a watershed in a sector that was traditionally viewed as a slow and cumbersome process where the alignment of India’s potential with its actualisation
By Subhash Chandra
Time For Review Of ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy
Since the launch of nuclear strikes by the USA on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 06 Aug 1945 and 09 Aug 1945 in Japan resulting in unprecedented destruction, every country has been aspiring to possess these nuclear weapons. Before the Non Proliferation Treaty (
By Maj Gen Ashok Kumar (Retd)
Weapons platform
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‘Project Zorawar’ Light Tank: A New Sentinel For India’s High-Altitude Borders!
Image Source: TFIPost As is true for most modernisation projects in Defence Forces the world over, the Indian Army’s proposal for acquisition of Light Tanks was
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
India’s Military Satellites: The Armed Forces’ Bulwarks For Communication & Surveillance!
The Indian Land Forces’ pursuit for a dedicated orbital communications platform is finally seeing fructification. In order to equip the Indian Army (IA) with a dedicated advanced communications satellite, the Ministry of Defence has just last month inked a Rs. 2963 Cr
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Hypersonic Missiles With Heat-Seeking Technology
The confrontation between Ukraine and Russia is not showing any signs of a ceasefire or end to hostilities. Russia has used its Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missile against multiple targets of importance. It consistently enhances its hypersonic prowess, bringing about a n
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
India’s Quest For A Reliable Assault Rifle
In the modern contactless hi-tech warfare, do assault rifles really make that difference? This is a question stuck on the minds of many. In an era of battlefield dominance by missile, drones of all kinds and sizes, to precision & loitering ammunition with beyond the
By Col Danvir Singh (Retd)
Defence & Strategy
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PLA Air Force: Significant Air Power – Time India Must Act
Like the Americans and the Russians, China realised very early that one who controls the aerospace, controls this planet. They began setting up aircraft building plants, initially with the help of the Soviet Union, and later during their honeymoon with the Americans, th
By Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retd)
The Chinese Intransience During Foreign Ministers’ Meet At Goa SCO Summit
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in September 2022 at Samarkand, Uzbekistan resulted in China accepting withdrawal from Gorga-Hot Spring Area (PP-15) on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Eastern Ladakh in run up to this event wherein withdrawal had c
By Maj Gen Ashok Kumar (Retd)
The 9 PARA (SF) Setback Is Temporary : Bounceback Is Inevitable
India’s Special Forces (SF) are its pride and the entire nation follows their actions and achievements with great interest. Hence the setback on May 5 in a recent operation in Rajouri’s Bhatta Durian Forest, where five brave hearts of 9 Para SF were killed in the li
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
Understanding Manipur Dynamics
Manipur was merged fully with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949, but it became a full-fledged state more than two decades later, in 1972. Manipur is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity. But the state has been plagued by internecine conflicts among different e
By Air Marshal Anil Khosla (Retd)
SIACHEN 1987 : A Story Forgotten
Siachen is one of those battlefields from where very little information flows rearwards. Great feats of valour remain buried there, forgotten with nary a memory. Over time a ceasefire has become effective and casualties are primarily by weather and terrain. It's peacefu
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
Role Of Indian Defence Forces During Freedom Struggle
As India Celebrates 75 years of Independence and commemorates the freedom struggle by the Indian citizens against the British Empire, the role of British Indian forces to preserve the British Raj in India viz-a-viz its contributions towards freedom movement always remai
By Col Deepak Kumar
Shahed-136: Challenging the Air Defence Systems
Iran has denied selling drones to Russia, but images making the rounds on social media confirm that Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian cities using Shahed-136 suicide drones made in Iran. The Shahed-136 delta-wing Kamikaze drones can be operational in less than 10 m
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Chinese Port In Myanmar – Threat To India
China has found the shortest possible entry into Indian Ocean to circumvent the traps laid by QUAD. India’s eastern belligerent neighbour China has expedited its work in the Kyaukpyu dual purpose port. This port may soon bear the footprint of Chinese Navy which could
By Levina
Why the Victory of 1971 Must Remain a Psychological Landmark
In India the mention of ‘1971’, in a gathering or individually, evokes elative sentiments of victory. Having defeated Pakistan comprehensively on the battlefield, attained both the political and military objectives in 14 days and created a new nation (Bangladesh), I
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
The Yangtse Standoff : With or Against the Run of Play
One of the highlights of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar are some of the results against the run of play. A perfectly balanced game suddenly goes in favour of a side willing to show a brief spurt of energy and activity. The situation at the Line of Actual Control (L
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
India Beware Of Copycat Chinese Air Force
In China, ‘Shanzhai’ today means imitation products that originally meant mountain stronghold. This word was originally associated with pirate factories producing duplicate products. Who knew one day, China would be copying and stealing just about everything and be
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Using Winter as A Weapon of War
The Russian-Ukraine Conflict (RUC) has completed nine months and heads into its tenth month. The Ukrainian Army is on the offensive, but Ukraine still has a long way to go to regain lost regions. Moscow's forces do control about one-fifth of its territory, and the comin
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
Protests in China – Xi Under Pressure
It’s all quite unheard of. Well, nearly. Protests spread across China into 14 provinces, lit by the governments ‘Zero Covid’ policy. At least so it seems. There’s a lot to anger the Chinese people these days, and it could be that the pandemic restrictions were t
By Dr Tara Kartha
India Needs A Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Revolution
It is Balakot 2.0 kind of night, with a different target and different platform. It would be remembered as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) night. A swarm of decoy UAVs took off from a secret location in north India and crossed to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). Following
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
An Internal Security Challenge Brewing in the Northeast
A class 12 student from Manipur needed money for an outing with his friends, so he decided to approach a woman who had offered him Rs 1000 per “soap case” if he smuggled it successfully from Myanmar. With his Myanmarese acquaintance he managed to smuggle about 50 su
By Levina
A New Pakistan Army Chief : The World and India Remain Wary
Apprehension about a change in command of the Pakistan Army has been rife for fairly long. Although everything about Pakistan remains unpredictable, the announcement of the appointment of Lt Gen Asim Munir as the next Pakistan Army Chief to succeed General Qamar Bajwa
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
How the Practice of Illegal Terror Financial Networks Functions in a Proxy War Zone?
Three fascinating events relating to counter terrorism took place in quick succession over the last eight weeks. First was the meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which took Pakistan off the grey list and classified it white. The world’s response to this
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
Is “Nuclear-Attack Threat” an Effective Weapon?
Vladimir Putin and many other Russian officials, politicians, and pro-Russia analysts have repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. Particularly following the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict on February 24,
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
New Pakistan Army Chief – Mystery Deepens
Pakistan and whole world are waiting for nomination of the next Army Chief. General Qamar Javed Bajwa is due to retire after his extended tenure of six years on 28 November 2022. Pakistan PM, Shahbaz Sharif rushed to London with his Defence Minister, Khwaja Muhammad Asi
By Lt Gen K J Singh (Retd)
Chinese Navy’s Advancements: Challenge Or Opportunity For India
The Chinese digital news outlet ‘The Paper’, recently published details of China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s display of a large number of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and underwater gliders at the Zhuhai air show. Thes
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
The Strategic Ladakh Range
Something extraordinary happened south of Pangong Tso (lake) in the night of August 29, 2020; the ‘Special Frontier Force’ (SFF), also known as Establishment 22 or Vikas Regiment occupied the heights of the Kailash Range. Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, a former Director Ge
By Claude Arpi
Rising Rivalry in the Indian Ocean
As two major emerging powers, India and China are maritime-oriented nation-states. New Delhi and Beijing have a unique set of vested interests in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). Geostrategic supremacy in this area is deemed to be a highly profitable national venture on t
By Jay Maniyar
Deciphering Military Signals Emanating from China’s 20th Party Congress
There has been the usual high symbolism and loaded political rhetoric of Chinese leadership that was witnessed during the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Comrade Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese character in new era to make China
By Lt Gen Rameshwar Yadav (Retd)
Minimizing Casualties on Indo-Bangladesh Borders
India shares over 15000 Km of borders with its seven neighbours. The circumstances leading upto independence and partition gave rise to many new borders and ever since then India has been facing serious security challenges from many of its neighbours viz China in the No
By Sanjiv Krishan Sood
Teenage Terrorists of PLA in Manipur and the China Angle
Teenagers in Manipur are on the edge of a precipice ready to be pushed into a very frightening abyss. The proscribed terrorist groups like PLA are now following a strategy very similar to the one executed by ISI backed terrorist groups in Kashmir. Reports suggest tha
By Levina
Where is the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat Report?
Sixty years ago, traumatic events took place on the Northern borders of India; undoubtedly, the Sino-Indian conflict in October/November 1962 is an episode which marked the Indian psyche. Though many facets of what happened in October 1962 have already been discussed
By Claude Arpi
Are Paradigms of Indo-US Relations Changing?
Little did the world expect that the war in Ukraine would become such a spoiler of global geopolitics that many emerging and well-established international relationships would get challenged. The conflict’s geostrategic location, players, links, economic impact and sc
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
A Reminder for India : 13 October was International Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Day
CHANAKYA FORUM IS COMMITTED TO EXECUTE REQUISITE RESPONSIBILITIES FOR REDUCTION OF DISASTER RISK AND ENHANCEMENT OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT CULTURE, FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY. Headlines in the media inform us every day of the new phenomenon of October rains in North India a
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
American Deep State Out to Sabotage India-USA Relationship?
Recently the US embassy in Islamabad went on a social media overdrive. In a series of tweets over three days, they highlighted the US ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome’s 2-4 October visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This was the second high-profile visit by
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
A Guerilla Victory At Umberkhind!
Screenshot Portraying The Battle of Umberkhind: Source-inmarathi.com “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose”.
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
Intricacies of Military Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul: Challenges and Opportunities for Industry
Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) is a major activity in the life span of an aircraft and its cost as well as time for overhaul is significant for the operations of aircraft. The activity is complex, equally important, but substantially different than manufacturing.
By Air Vice Marshal Samir Borade, VSM (Retd)
Coronation Of Emperor Xi and The World Thereafter
A few days ago, news about Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrest took social media by storm. The rumour was that Xi, who is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on return from the Shangha
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
Emerging Challenges on Western Front
Western Command, the pivotal command on Western front celebrated, platinum jubilee, on 15 September. It is opportune time to look beyond nostalgia and ceremonials, to take stock of operational dynamics and emerging challenges, on the Western Front. The review is also
By Lt Gen K J Singh (Retd)
China is Coming For Your Land: Farmland
Drought has plunged water levels to the lowest in China in decades. The temperatures have also soared to record levels, and hydropower plants failed to meet the sharp rise in power demand. However, this is just a glimpse of the worst things to come. Floods, droughts, an
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
The General’s Desk
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (R)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
By Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)
OP-ED
-
President Biden, Please Transit from the 20th to the 21st Century
By Prof Madhav Das Nalapat
-
India is Only Aligned to its National Interest
By Kanwal Sibal
-
Amar Jawan Jyoti – Needless Controversy
By Kanwal Sibal
Weapons Platform
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Brig Arvind Dhananjayan (Retd)
By Prof (Dr) DK Pandey
By Col Danvir Singh (Retd)
Cockpit Conversation
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
Cdr Sandeep Dhawan
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)
By Cdr Sandeep Dhawan (Retd)