Post Cold War Developments in South Asia
RBSA Publishers, Jaipur
As with all regions of the world, South Asia did not remain unaffected by the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This book, out of the Department of South Asian Studies of the University of Rajasthan, attempts a look at the changed scenario in the context of the polities within each regional state. There are sixteen chapters, four each on India and Pakistan, three each on Nepal and Sri Lanka, only one on Bangladesh, and another on the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Most of the submissions are dated.
Nalineet Ghildial reports of the impact of the Soviet Union´s collapse on India but is silent on the new Indo-Russian Treaty of 1993. Neither does she probe with any depth into the multi-dimensional nature of current Indo-Russian relations. Dheeraj Kumar analyses US perception of India (during the Bush presidency), and provides some useful insights on the emerging area of Indo-US defence cooperation. B.M. Jain, writing on India´s defence policy, underlines New Delhi´s challenge of balancing domestic opposition to higher defence spending with the need to modernise its armed forces. His solution: involve the private industrial sector in defence manufacturing.