Senior Fellow
Coordinator, South Asia Programme
Coordinator, International Relations Programme
Dr Rajesh Basrur

Education

Research Interests

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Selected Publications:

Authored Books

• (With Timothy Hoyt, Rifaat Hussain and Sujoyini Mandal) The 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: Strategic Fallout (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2009).
• South Asia’s Cold War: Nuclear Weapons and Conflict in Comparative Perspective (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2008).
• Minimum Deterrence and India’s Nuclear Security ( Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006; republished – Singapore: National University Press, 2009).
• India ’s External Relations: A Theoretical Analysis ( New Delhi: Commonwealth Publishers, 2000).

 

Edited Books

• (With Koh Swee Lean) Nuclear Power and Energy Security in Asia: Critical Debates (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, forthcoming).
• Challenges to Democracy in India ( New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009).
• Reintroducing the Human Security Debate in South Asia (with Mallika Joseph; New Delhi: Samskriti Publishers, 2007).
• Security in the New Millennium: Views from South Asia ( New Delhi: India Research Press, 2001).
• Perspectives on India’s Defence and Arms Control (Mumbai: Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, 1999).

 

Peer-Reviewed Journal Papers

• “Global Quest and Regional Reversal: Rising India and Its Neighbours,” International Studies, 47, 2-4 (April-December 2010, forthcoming).
• “Low-Profile Deterrence: Lessons from the Indian Experience,” RUSI Journal, 156, 5 (October/November 2011), pp. 38-43.
• (With Bommakanti Kartik) “The India-China Nuclear Relationship,” Strategic Analysis, 35, 2 (March 2011), pp. 186-193.
• “ India and Disarmament,” Security Challenges, 6, 4 (Summer 2010), pp. 69-81.
• “Two Decades of Minimum Deterrence in South Asia: A Comparative Framework” India Review, 9, 3 (July 2010), pp. 300-318.
• “Scholarship on International Relations in India and Abroad,” International Studies, 46, 1-2 (January-April 2009 [published in June 2010]), pp. 89-108.
• “Nuclear Weapons and India-Pakistan Relations,” and “Response to Dr. Quinlan’s Critique,” Strategic Analysis, 33, 3 (May 2009), pp. 336-344, 347-348.
• “Theory for Strategy: Emerging India in a Changing World,” South Asian Survey 16, 1 (March 2009), pp. 5-21.
• “Correspondence: Do Small Arsenals Deter?” International Security 32, 3 (Winter 2007/08), pp. 202-7.
• “Nuclear Command-and-Control and Strategic Politics in South Asia,” Contemporary South Asia, 14, 2 (June 2005), pp. 155-161.
• “International Relations Theory and Minimum Deterrence,” India Review, 4, 2 (April 2005), pp. 1-19.
• “Nuclear and Radiological Threats for India: Risk Potential and Countermeasures” (with Friedrich Steinhausler), Journal of Physical Security, 1, 1 (2004) <http://jps.lanl.gov/vol1_iss1/3-Threats_for_India.pdf>.
• “Kargil, Terrorism, and India’s Strategic Shift,” India Review, 1, 4 (October 2002), pp. 39-56.
• “Nuclear Weapons and Indian Strategic Culture,” Journal of Peace Research, 38, 2 (March 2001), pp. 181-198.

 

Book Chapters

• “The Rise of China: An Indian Perspective,” in Mingjiang Li and Dongmin Lee, eds. China and the Strategic Dynamics in East Asia: the Shaping of a New Regional Order ( Lexington, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).
• “Regional Power Development in a Space Thick with Competing Powers: India,” in Thomas J. Volgy , Renato Corbetta , Keith A. Grant and Ryan G. Baird , eds. Major Powers and the Quest for Status in International Politics (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
• “Nuclear Deterrence Thinking in Pakistan,” in E. Sridharan, ed. International Relations Theory and South Asia, Vol II ( New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011).
• “Foreign Policy Reversal: The Politics of Sri Lanka’s Economic Relationship with India,” in E. Sridharan, ed. International Relations Theory and South Asia, Vol I ( New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011).
• “Indian Perspectives on the Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons,” in Barry M. Blechman and Alexander K. Bollfrass, eds. Unblocking the Road to Zero: China and India ( Washington, DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, 2010).
• “Who’s Afraid of Missile Defence?” in N. S. Sisodia and S. Kalyanaraman, eds. The Future of War and Peace in Asia ( New Delhi: Magnum Books, 2010).
• “India-Pakistan Relations: Between War and Peace,” in Sumit Ganguly, ed. Indian Foreign Policy ( New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010).
• “Nuclear Weapons and Crisis Stability in South Asia,” in Sumit Ganguly, Joseph Liow and Andrew Scobell, eds., Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies ( London: Routledge, 2010).
• “The Lessons of Kargil as Learned by India,” in Peter Lavoy, ed., Asymmetric Warfare in South Asia: The Causes and Consequences of the Kargil Conflict ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
• “The India-U. S. Nuclear Deal: Security Implications,” in Christopher Len and Alvin Chew, eds., Energy and Security Cooperation in Asia: Challenges and Prospects ( Stockholm: Institute for Security and Development Policy, 2009).
• “ India’s Nuclear Arsenal: Prospects for Enlargement,” in Mark Fitzpatrick, Alexander Nikitin and Sergey Oznobishchev, eds., Nuclear Doctrines and Strategies: National Policies and International Security ( Amsterdam: IOS Press, in cooperation with NATO, 2008).
• “ India: Imbalance under Civilian Control,” in Thomas Bruneau and Harold Trinkunas, eds., Global Politics of Defense Reform ( New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
• “WMD Terrorism: Challenge and Response,” in Hiro Katsumata and See Seng Tang, eds., People’s ASEAN and Governments’ ASEAN, RSIS Monograph No. 12 ( Singapore: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, 2007).
• “India’s Nuclear Policy since Independence,” in Daniel P. Marston and Chandar S. Sundaram, eds., AMilitary History of India and South Asia: From the East India Company to the Nuclear Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), republished in paperback (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008).
• “Coercive Diplomacy in A Nuclear Environment: The December 13 Crisis,” in Rafiq Dossani and Henry S. Rowen, eds., Prospects for Peace in South Asia ( Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005).
• “ India ’s Escalation-Resistant Nuclear Posture,” in Michael Krepon, Rodney W. Jones and Ziad Haider, eds., Escalation Control and the Nuclear Option in South Asia, ( Washington , DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, 2004).
• “Bombs in Search of A Mission: India’s Uncertain Nuclear Futures,” (with Stephen P. Cohen), in Michael R. Chambers, ed., South Asia in 2020: Future Strategic Balances and Alliances (Carlisle Barracks, PA: U. S. Army War College, 2002).
• “Missile Defense: An Indian Perspective,” in Michael Krepon and Chris Gagné Chris Gagné, eds., Nuclear Risk Reduction in South Asia ( New Delhi: Vision Books, 2003).
• “Some Observations on Indian Strategic Culture,” in A. Subramanya Raju, ed., Nuclear India: Problems and Perspectives ( New Delhi: South Asian Publishers, 2000).
• “US Nuclear Policy after the Cold War,” in A. A. Mutalik-Desai et al, eds., A Mosaic of Encounters ( India & USA: Literature, Society and Politics) (New Delhi: Creative Books, 1999).
• “ India’s Nuclear Policy: The Need for Clear-Cut Ambivalence,” in P. M. Kamath, ed., Emerging International Order and Foreign Policy Options for India (Allahabad: Indian Academy of Social Sciences, 1999).

 

Other Research Papers

• “Domestic Politics and Systemic Constraints in Pakistan’s India Policy,” Research Brief # 60, Pakistan Security Research Unit, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, July 22, 2010 <http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/download/attachments/748/Brief+60.pdf>.
• “Indien und Pakistan: Auf Einem Neuen Weg?” (German = India and Pakistan: On A New Course?), transl. Christine Schweitzer, FriedensForum (= Peace Forum), Bonn, 4/2008, pp. 28-29.
• “Minimum Deterrence and Pakistan’s Nuclear Strategy,” Research Brief # 38, Pakistan Security Research Unit, University of Bradford, July 27, 2008,
  <http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/download/attachments/748/Brief_No_38b.pdf>.
• “Minimum Deterrence: Fundamentals and Policy Implications,” Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, 1, 3 (July-September 2006), pp. 63-71.
• “Minimum Deterrence and India-Pakistan Nuclear Dialogue: Case Study on India” Landau Network Centro-Volta, Como, Italy, March 2006. Available at
  <http://www.centrovolta.it/landau/content/binary/02.%20Basrur-Minimum%20deterrence%20and%20India%20Pakistan%20dialogue,%20INDIA.Case%20Study%202006.pdf >.
• “Indian Nuclear Security: Strategic Culture and Doctrine,” (in Russian) for Yaderny Kontrol (Arms Control), 1 (January 2005), pp. 41-50 < http://www.pircenter.org/data/publications/yk1-2005.pdf>.
• “Les Armes Nucléaires et la Sécurité de L’Inde” (French = “Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security”), Annuaire Français de Relations Internationales (French Directory of International Relations), 5, June 2004 <http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/AFRI%2032.pdf>.
• “Nuclear India at the Crossroads,” Arms Control Today, 33, 7 (September 2003), pp. 7-11.
• (With Hasan-Askari Rizvi), “Nuclear Terrorism and South Asia,” Occasional Paper, 25, Cooperative Monitoring Center, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, February 2003.
• “Enduring Contradictions: Deterrence Theory and the Draft Nuclear Doctrine,” Economic and Political Weekly, XXXV, 8 & 9 (September 26, 2000): 610-613.
• “Conceptualising the Three Asias,” Swords and Ploughshares ( University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), X (1996-97): 5-9.
• “South Asia’s Persistent Cold War,” ACDIS Occasional Paper, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (November 1996).

 

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Professional Activities

Previous Experience

Associate Professor, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (2007-09)

Director, Centre for Global Studies, Mumbai, (2000-2007)

Reader, Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai (1996-2000)

Reader, R. Ruia College, University of Mumbai (1994-96)

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (1978-94), R. Ruia College, University of Mumbai

 

Fellowships

• Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Hull (2011, 2009)
• S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (2006-07)
• Centre for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University (2002-2003)
• Cooperative Monitoring Centre, Sandia National Laboratories (2002),
• Brookings Institution (2001-2002)
• Henry L. Stimson Center (2001)
• Fulbright Fellow, Programme in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1995-96)
• Shastri Fellow, Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University (1994)

 

Other

• Associate Editor, India Review.
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, “South Asia in World Affairs” Series, Georgetown University Press.
• Member, International Board, “Asian Security Monograph Series,” Stanford University Press.
• Member, Editorial Board, “International Politics of South Asia” series, Oxford University Press.
• Associate , Pakistan Security Research Unit, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford.

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