Ajey Lele

The Group of Government Experts need to take into consideration complex and inter-related concerns of space activities before formulating the Transparency and Confidence Building Measures. The need is to have an effective mechanism and not an accommodative one.

• Published: May 20, 2013
• IDSA Comments

A ‘pearl’ could be viewed as a sphere of influence seeded, secured and maintained through the use of economic, geopolitical, diplomatic or military means. The ‘string of pearls’ is about China’s unambiguous maritime strategy that investments in increasing its sea power. This is essentially a multi-pronged strategy that challenges dominant US interests in the Indian Ocean and sends a clear message to India that the Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean by increasing the dependence of the littoral states in the region on China.

• Published: March 21, 2013
• IDSA Comments

For almost the last 50 years, space collaboration has significantly remained intact between France and India. They have worked together on a range of issues from satellite applications, developing small satellites to earth system science and weather satellites.

• Published: March 07, 2013
• IDSA Comments

Iran’s investments in space should not be viewed only through the narrow prism of a nuclear threat but as a nascent attempt to challenge the West’s technological domination.

• Published: January 31, 2013
• IDSA Comments

After becoming the first country to oppose the annual non-binding UN resolution ‘Preventing an Arms Race in Outer Space’ in 2005, the US made it clear to the United Nations that it ‘will continue to consider the possible role that [S]pace-related weapons may play in protecting [its] [S]pace assets.’ This was only a precursor to the 2006 National Space Policy of the US that has cleared the way for the deployment of Spacebased weapons by the US.

• Published: January 2013
• Journal of Defence Studies

STI 2013 envisages the creation of a word-class infrastructure for R&D and skill development as well as encouraging the scientific community by providing adequate opportunities and better career options.

• Published: January 09, 2013
• IDSA Comments

The most interesting aspect of India and Japan coming together is that they are also proposing to engage with other states where REEs are available for excavation.

• Published: November 20, 2012
• IDSA Comments

India has much to learn from China with regard to using space as an ‘instrument of influence’ and also needs to expand the global footprint of its expertise.

• Published: November 16, 2012
• IDSA Comments

India’s inadequacies in the space arena are not limited to how much weight its launch vehicles can carry into space but also extends to the number of launches that ISRO can carry out in a year.

• Published: October 01, 2012
• IDSA Comments

On 6 June 2012 the European Union (EU) launched a multilateral diplomatic process to discuss and negotiate an International Code of Conduct (CoC) for outer space. This CoC is designed as a complementary mechanism for the existing framework and for ensuring the security, safety and sustainability of all outer space activities. Space sustainability is about ensuring that outer space is used for the advancement of society and providing society with the various benefits of space technologies.

• Published: September 2012
• Strategic Analysis