South Asia Programme

Established in 2007, the South Asia Programme has focused primarily on strategic issues. These include India’s military modernisation, India’s relations with major powers (China and the United States) and with regional powers in South Asia and East Asia, comparative civil-military relations in South and Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean security, and river disputes in Southern Asia.

The Programme has engaged in collaborative research with other RSIS units, notably the China Programme, the Maritime Security Programme, and the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies.

Outside RSIS, the Programme has worked with, among others, the Observer Research Foundation (India), the Institute of Security and Development Policy (Sweden), the Program in Arms Control Disarmament and International Security (USA), and the inter-government Indian Ocean Rim Association.

Though a small set-up, the South Asia Programme has since its inception, produced a dozen books, more than 80 research papers, and a large number of reports, policy briefs and commentaries.

Programme Staff

Dr Sinderpal Singh
Senior Fellow
Coordinator of South Asia Programme, IDSS
DID: +65 6908 2318
Email: [email protected]

Mr Nishant Rajeev
Senior Analyst
South Asia Programme, IDSS
DID: +65 6904 1374
Email: [email protected]

Programme Activities

Featured below are recent RSIS-related activities. Staff members engage in numerous other projects listed on their individual pages.

Recent Publications

Books

• Rajesh Basrur and Sumitha Narayanan Kutty, eds. India and Japan: Assessing the Strategic Partnership. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
• Sinderpal Singh, Modi and the World: (Re) Constructing Indian Foreign Policy (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, April 2017)
• Anit Mukherjee and C. Raja Mohan, eds. India’s Naval Strategy and Asian Security. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Anit Mukherjee, ed. The Merlion and the Ashoka: Singapore–India Strategic Ties. World Scientific, 2015.
• Rajesh Basrur, and Bharat Gopalaswamy, eds. India’s Military Modernization: Strategic Technologies and Weapons Systems (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, eds., India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Policy Briefs & Reports

• Harsh V. Pant, “India and Vietnam: A “Strategic Partnership” in the Making,” RSIS Policy Report, 09 April 2018.
• Abhijit Singh, “The Nautical Dimension of India’s “Act East” Policy,” RSIS Policy Report, 09 April 2018.
• Bhavna Dave, Resetting India’s Engagement in Central Asia: From Symbols to Substance, RSIS Policy Brief, 02 February 2016.
• Pramit Pal Chaudhari, “India and Japan: A Nascent Strategic Bonding,” RSIS Policy Brief, 14 May 2015.
• Isabelle Saint-Mézard, “The French Strategy in the Indian Ocean and the Potential for Indo-French Cooperation,” RSIS Policy Report, 12 March 2015.
• Richard A. Bitzinger, “Prospects for Future Indo-European Defence Industrial Cooperation,” RSIS Policy Brief, 02 August 2014.
• Anit Mukherjee, “India as a Net Security Provider: Concept and Impediments,” RSIS Policy Brief, 01 August 2014.

RSIS Commentaries

• Rajesh Basrur, “The ‘New’ Nuclear Arms Race,” No. 117, 29 October 2018.
• Sinderpal Singh, “South Asia and the Maritime Silk Road: Far From Plain-sailing,” No. 57, 28 March 2018.
• Sinderpal Singh, “The Modi ‘Wave’: Implications of Uttar Pradesh State Elections,” No. 44, 15 March 2017.
• Rajesh Basrur, “Avoiding Nuclear Crises in Asia,” No. 11, 23 January 2018.
• Rajesh Basrur, “US-China: Competing Amidst Two Transitions,” No. 130, 06 July 2017.
• Anit Mukherjee and Walter C. Ladwig III, “Trump & Modi: Seeking a Global Partnership?” No. 125, 23 June 2017.
• Anit Mukherjee, “India’s Act East Policy: Embedding the Andamans,” No. 131, 31 May 2016.
• Sumitha Narayanan Kutty, “Iran’s Infrastructure Projects: India, China Competing?,” No. 14, 22 January 2016.
• Sumitha Narayanan Kutty, “Iran Nuclear Deal: Expect Limited US-Iran Détente,” No. 149, 07 July 2015.
• Sumitha Narayanan Kutty, “Make in India and Defence: Modi’s Outreach to Korea,” No. 132, 5 June 2015.
• C. Raja Mohan, “Modi and Obama:Ready to Reboot India-US Relations?” No. 017, 21 January 2015.

Journal Special Issue

• Anit Mukherjee and Walter C. Ladwig III, “On the India-US Partnership,” Asia Policy, 14.1 (2019).
• Rajesh Basrur and Ajaya Kumar Das, eds. Looking East in Defense: Perspectives on India-Southeast Asia Relations, India Review, 12, 3 (2013).

Monographs

• Ajaya Kumar Das, ed., India-ASEAN Defence Relations, RSIS Monograph No. 28, 25 April 2013.
• Bibhu Prasad Routray, National Security Decision-Making in India, RSIS Monograph No. 27, 27 March 2013.
• Arpita Mathur, India-Japan Relations: Drivers, Trends and Prospects, RSIS Monograph No. 23, 13 July 2012.
• Rajesh Basrur and Kartik Bommakanti, eds., Demilitarising the State: The South and Southeast Asian Experience, RSIS Monograph No. 25, 07 December 2012.

Working Papers

• Sumona Dasgupta, “Kashmir and the India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue Process,” RSIS Working Paper, No. 291, 21 May 2015.
• Rajesh Basrur, “Nuclear Deterrence: the Wohlstetter-Blackett Debate Re-visited,” RSIS Working Paper, No. 271, 15 April 2014.
• Bhumitra Chakma, “Bangladesh-India Relations: Sheikh Hasina’s India-positive Policy Approach,” RSIS Working Paper, No. 252, 12 November 2012.

Recent Conferences/Workshops

• RSIS-ISAS Workshop on “India – Rising Power in an Age of Uncertainty,” 28 February – 01 March 2019.
• Workshop on “A Global Partnership or A Relationship Oversold? The India-US Strategic Relationship,” 02 March 2018.
• Workshop on “India-China Maritime Competition,” 20 January 2017.
• Workshop on “India and Japan: Towards A Global Partnership,” 29 January 2016.
• Workshop on “Rising India: Status and Power,” jointly with Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS), University of Oxford, 3-4 March 2015.
• Conference on “The Merlion and the Ashoka: Singapore-India Strategic and Defence Ties,” 24 October 2014.
• “IORA and Strategic Stability in the Indian Ocean”, jointly organised with the Maritime Security Programme and South Asia Programme, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, RSIS, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), 4–5 March 2014, Mauritius.

Recent Visiting Fellows

• Prof. Ian Hall, Visiting Senior Fellow, 19 October – December 7, 2018
• Prof. Vidya Nadkarni, Visiting Senior Fellow, 5 February–19 March 2018
• Prof. T.V. Paul, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, January 11-26, 2017
• Mr. Dhruva Jaishankar, Visiting Research Fellow, December 2015 – February 2016
• Lt. Gen Prakash Menon (retd), Visiting Research Fellow, 7-28 October 2014
• Dr. Sumona Dasgupta, Visiting Research Fellow, January – March 2014
• Dr. Mahesh Shankar, Visiting Fellow, January – July 2013