India Archive

Tom Barnett flags this WaPo article (from August) about the ways in which women’s emergence in the workforce is challenging traditional gender roles and family structures. As Barnett puts it: Globalization is a job threat to us, but it’s a social revolution to most countries around the world. Another area where the hidden costs of “The Rise of the Rest” have yet to be calculated into the emerging redistribution of global power and influence. I’ve already discussed the ways in which America has a head start on the kind of multicultural society globalization will ultimately select for. China, for instance, […]

NEW DELHI — The series of deadly bomb blasts that shook India’s capital on Sept. 13 has prompted some of the usual finger pointing at Pakistan, but most evidence suggests the attacks were perpetrated by homegrown Islamist militants, and there is growing recognition here that the increasing activity of such groups poses a huge challenge to India’s anti-terror capabilities. A shadowy Muslim group, the Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for the five attacks that left 24 dead and at least 100 injured at commercial and tourist hubs around New Delhi. The serial attacks constituted the fourth separate such incident in as […]

After years of reflexively blaming Pakistan for any and all domesticterrorist attacks, it looks like India will now have to address agrowing homegrown Islamic terrorist threat. At ten percent of India’spopulation, the Indian Muslim community can’t possibly hope to imposean Islamic state, and even if that were the goal, it was achieved 60years ago with the independence of Pakistan. Still, while I’ve tended to dismiss the idea that Islamic extremismrepresents a strategic or existential threat to the U.S. (or the West),I suppose that if it does, it’s not in the sense that it can actuallyachieve its objectives so much as […]

Ever wonder what would happen in an alternate universe where, instead of haunting Fox News studios, John Bolton had been born in India? Well, he’d probably be named Bharat Verma, and he’d probably be the Editor of the Indian Defense Review. And not only would he be glad about the instability threatening Pakistan’s existence, he’d be actively encouraging it and lauding the benefits resulting from the “cessation of Pakistan as a state”: Pakistan’s breakup will be a major setback to the Jihad Factory, asthe core of this is located in Pakistan, and functions with the help ofits army and the […]

The U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear agreement may still have to clear the U.S. Congress, but Indian firms and industry groups are already celebrating the Nuclear Suppliers Group’s decision this month that effectively gave the agreement a green light by waiving a ban on the country engaging in nuclear trade. The U.S.-India Business Council, which has lobbied hard in support of the bilateral agreement that followed a joint statement in 2005 by President George Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, described the waiver as “a historic step forward for India and the world,” while the Confederation of Indian Industry said it […]

Jeffrey Lewis of Arms Control Wonk on the NSG’s India waivers here and here. Apparently no side deals were cut to get some of the last holdouts in Vienna on board for the waiver, although informal assurances were given that no one had any plans to transfer sensitive dual use enrichment technology to India. Essentially, the deal was approved despite the fact, or perhaps because of the fact, that neither the NSG holdouts nor India received any formal guarantees that their red lines wouldn’t be crossed. I’ve got mixed feelings about the deal in general, since I find both the […]

I haven’t gone through the NSG’s India waiver, but I’m skeptical of the value of an agreement that both sides seem to think supports their mutually exclusive positions. The key sticking point was whether India would be guaranteed an uninterrupted enriched uranium supply in the event of, say, a resumption of nuclear weapons testing. India says yes, the NSG says no. Says Jeffrey Lewis at Arms Control Wonk: One of the two parties is wrong. I am not eager to find out which. The agreed upon solution seems to be that everyone will do their best to make sure we […]

As I’ve suspected for a while, after doing the heavy lifting for clearing India’s return to the nuclear fold, America will watch France and Russia walk away with the lion’s share of the initial nuclear contracts handed out, expected to represent $100 billion over the next twenty years. In addition to an expected delay in Congressional ratification, American companies will have to wait for a liability convention to be drawn up before actively entering the Indian market. French and Russian nuclear producers, on the other hand, are nationalized, allowing them to use national sovereignty to shield themselves from liability in […]