Asian Defence Review 2022: Diplomacy in Turmoil: A Year of Turbulence

Contents: 1. Ambitious Xi Jinping: curbing dissent and antagonising the world/Anil Chopra. 2. Military power play amidst the changing regional dynamics/SP Singh. 3. Tracking the current trends of modern Chinese weapons/Amitabh Mathur. 4. IAF as a force multiplier in collaboration: The quest for dominance/Anil Golani. 5. Geo-economics of artificial islands in the South China sea: A China-Vietnam case study/Neha Mishra. 6. Health diplomacy amid the pandemic crisis: India ’s opportunity for leadership/Mahima Duggal. 7. On the fly: Israeli Air power and India’s options/Anu Sharma. 8. China’s nuclear missile modernisation from 2010 to 2020 and implications for India/Nasima Khatoon. 9. OTH Radar: A necessity for the Indian skies/Swaim Prakash Singh. 10. Democracy—at the crossroads/Sanu Kainikara. 11. India-South East Asia security cooperation/Temjenmeren Ao. 12. The resurgence of Taliban Post 9/11/Mohit Sharma. 13. Taliban takeover: Emerging dynamics in central Asia/Poonam Mann. 14. Is India’s ‘Net Security Provider’ status in the Indian Ocean region shrinking?/Joshy M Paul.

Asian region in the year gone by, in addition to second wave of Covid-19, faced multiple challenges in almost every field, ranging from political disruption, economic crisis, return of Taliban to power and diplomatic uncertainty associated with it. The events ranged at one end from changing dimensions of India-China military standoff, military coup in Malaysia, and US withdrawal from Afghanistan to events like vaccine diplomacy, medical aid collaboration, cyber security and sharing of critical resources for economic growth in the region. Keeping pace with the rapid development of events in the region and resulting instability, Asian Defence Review (ADR) 2022 is focusing on impact of these events on relations amongst the neighbouring nations of the region. This issue of the ADR covers the theme “Diplomacy in Turmoil: A Year of Turbulence” divided into three sections. The first section focuses on the major quests for military pre-dominance and geo-economic competition; the second section traces the factors that defined-redefined the geopolitical forces in Asia; and the third section analyzes the diplomatic sway amidst the turmoil in the region. Effectively we cover the entire regional arc from West Asia to Indo-Pacific, emerging global concern, and the outlook for future.