avinash.godbole

Obama's East Asia Wish List The President of the United States, Barak Obama is visiting various countries in East & Southeast Asia from the 13 th of November 2009. That he chose East Asia as his first stop in Asia as the US President underlines the importance of the region for his regime and for the United States as such. At its basic, Obama’s Asia visit has three major agenda points; North Korea, trade imbalance and trade war with Japan and China and the future of Climate Change. Besides these issues of immediate importance, there are other issues of particular American interest in East Asia. Obama will try to reassert the importance of the American military umbrella for the region, something which is being doubted by the present day Japan under the newly elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. The Democratic Party of Japan has signalled its wish for a more independent foreign policy. In the first few days of the Hatoyama government, the US has shown some flexib

C for China? Not Always India’s defence and strategic requirement have gone up manifold in the last one decade. These requirements have increased as a consequence of India’s economic rise and its implications on India’s positioning in the strategic space. In addition, India’s economic rise has obviously increased the stakes in securitising the agents of change. For example, a decade ago, no one could have imagined the role of CISF in providing security to the IT giants of the Indian industry. This is the manner in which India’s security requirements are going to increase in the future. India will have to increase its defence budget and focus on modernisation of its armed forces simply because there would be too much at stake if India did not pay adequate attention to the country’s security. For example, a hostage situation because of terrorist activity in the economic capital of the country tends to paralyse the entire security apparatus. And as 26/11 has shown, with rising power, Indi