Academic literature has the potential to produce theoretically-grounded and informed policymaking. In an ongoing series aimed at bridging the divide between policy analysis and academic scholarship, SAV contributors review recent articles and books published by leading scholars to evaluate the latest theoretical and analytical debates on strategic issues and their implications for South Asia.

SAV Review: The New Era of Counterforce in South Asia
In 2018, Sufian Ullah analyzed the role of expanding counterforce technologies in South Asia in light of Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press’s International Security journal […]

SAV Review: How Much Does Nuclear Superiority Matter in South Asia?
The Start of a New Race for Nuclear Superiority? Over the past 72 years, India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars and had multiple […]

SAV Review: The People behind the Guns: The Relationship Between Cutting-edge Technology and Escalation
Since each country’s nuclear tests in 1998, India and Pakistan have witnessed multiple crises and near-misses, including escalating to the point of kinetic actions and […]

SAV Review: Is Pakistan’s Nuclear Strategy Stuck in Time?
In the aftermath of the Pulwama attack in February of this year, both India and Pakistan carried out a series of maneuvers with grave escalatory […]

انسدادی قوت (”کاؤنٹر فورس“) کا جھانسہ اور اس کے خلاف مزاحمت
کر سٹوفر کلیری اور وپن نارنگ کا “انٹر نیشنل سیکورٹی” میگزین میں چھپنے والا مضمون “بھارت کا انسدادی قوت (”کاؤنٹر فورس“) کے حصول کا لالچ […]

SAV Review: Analyzing Triadic Coercion in South Asia
On Feb. 14, 2019, a suicide bomber from the Islamist terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) caravan, resulting in one […]

SAV Review: Resisting the Counterforce Temptation
Christopher Clary and Vipin Narang’s article “India’s Counterforce Temptations: Strategic Dilemmas, Doctrines and Capabilities” in International Security attempts to make sense of India’s apparent approach […]

SAV Review: What Drives Doctrinal Change in the Indian Army?
In March 2018, the journal India Review published a special issue on the theme of the Indian strategy and its various elements. Christopher Clary, a […]

SAV Review: Acknowledging Washington’s Blind Eye
Diplomatic history consists of the narratives we learn and then rehearse and repeat. Naturally, our points of view are usually nationalistic and a misreading of […]

SAV Review: When Push Comes to Shove, Will India’s NFU Stand?
Editor’s Note: This piece is a response to Reshmi Kazi’s review of Kumar Sundaram and M.V. Ramana’s article “India and the Policy of No First Use […]