The internet has become the primary medium of communication in the era of globalization, which is highly dominated by the information and communication technologies. The internet – network of networks – deals with massive data which is transmitted over secure as well as insecure channels and media. The security requirement of data is determined by the value or importance of data.

The ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, previously called al-Qaeda in Iraq under the leadership of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and currently called the Islamic state (after declaring Iraq a ‘Caliphate’) – has become a major non-state player in the conflict in Iraq as well as Syria. The organisation, which has its origins in Iraq, had shifted its base of operations to Syria when the civil war began in the country to oust the Assad regime.

The much touted US pivot/re-balance to the Asia-Pacific has drawn considerable flak of late. From the Syrian chemical weapons use to Russia’s revanchism, the questioning of America’s leadership has seen the pivot naysayers become louder. President Obama has firmly recognized the limits of American power.

It has been little more than two months that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come to power in New Delhi after defeating the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government that governed India for ten years.

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Conventional weapons seem to have reached the end of the road. Does that mean the work started by the likes of Alfred Noble[i] and Tipu Sultan[ii]has finally reached its pinnacle as far as further development in technology and concept is concerned? The answer is in the affirmative!

With 2014 marked as the Chinese New Year of the Horse, India and China have galloped together into taking new strides in their bilateral relations.

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China is about to operationalise a 1 GigaWatt (GW) nuclear power reactor at Karachi in Pakistan, highly-placed sources within the scientific community warn. Two more are in the pipeline in Karachi and three more in other parts of the country. This represents a quantum leap from the much smaller reactors hitherto supplied by Beijing to Islamabad, and is also the first time that such advanced technology has been demonstrated globally.

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A passage or a corridor is that geographical entity which represents a connection between two or more places. In international relations, a corridor becomes significant not merely because of the places it links but also because of the relative location where it is situated. Hence corridors demand and deserve a lot more attention than just those places that it attempts to unite. However, very often instead of focussing on the significance of the corridor, value is given to those two or more regions which are linked with the help of the former.

The geopolitics of many Asian countries revolves around the Himalayas. With state policies having clear and definite impact on both traditional and non-traditional security threats, it becomes imperative to understand the politics of the Himalayan region. Himalayan Watch as a part of the website ‘Science, Technology and Security Forum’ intends to serve as a platform for experts from India and around the world to express their views on issues of politics and security in the Himalayan region.

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.