Strategic space & diffidence

The strategic situation in India's neighbourhood has gone into a stalemate that's too good to last. This is a time to look to the future and fast-forward reforms

Taking a broad view of India’s external security prospects for the year, you can make one of two easy, if contrary, choices. One — if you’re an optimist and/or a Modi government backer — is that things have never been so calm.

 There’s a chronic but stable stalemate on the border with China, and the Pakistan Army is too busy counting its dead on the western frontier and facing an unprecedented challenge from an increasingly popular leader. And India’s alliances to the west and the east are becoming more durable, bound by the glue of the common threat of China.