Indian Strategic Studies: 05/24/24

24 May 2024

India and Chabahar: Navigating the Tides of US Sanctions

Namita Barthwal

On May 13, Indian Ports Global Ltd. (IPGL) and the Port and Maritime Organization (PMO) of Iran signed a 10-year agreement to operate the Shahid-Behesti terminal of the Chabahar port. This agreement is part of a four-phase development program that began in 2016. Under the new agreement, IPGL will invest $120 million in the terminal’s infrastructure development. Additionally, India has agreed on a $250 million credit line to further develop the Iranian port. The signing ceremony was attended by India’s minister of shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, who reiterated Chabahar’s strategic importance in connecting India with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.

However, this development was quickly overshadowed by a warning from the U.S. State Department, which raised concerns about potential sanctions risks for IPGL. In response, India has taken a diplomatic route to deter the United States from imposing sanctions stemming from the 2012 Iran Freedom Counterproliferation Act (IFCA) on IPGL, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). Previously, Indian PSUs have received exemptions from Washington under the IFCA for their engagements with Iran, including importing oil from the country and developing Chabahar port, considering its regional significance.

India has four reasons for building the Shahid-Behesti terminal of the Chabahar port. First, it has established a direct trade route from India to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. On October 29, 2017, the first shipment of wheat from India to Afghanistan via Chabahar port marked the terminal’s operational status.

Senior Study Group on Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Final Report

Executive Summary

When announcing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in April 2021, President Joe Biden identified counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan as an enduring and critical US national security interest. This priority became even more pronounced after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the discovery of al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul less than a year later, and the increasing threat of the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K) from Afghanistan. However, owing to the escalating pressures of strategic competition with China and Russia, counterterrorism has significantly dropped in importance in the policy agenda. Following 9/11, the national security policy pendulum swung to an overwhelming focus on counterterrorism, but since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, it appears to have swung in the opposite direction.

In 2022, the United States Institute of Peace convened the Senior Study Group on Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan to examine the counterterrorism challenge from the region in light of the US withdrawal and growing strategic competition. The study group is a bipartisan group of experts, bringing a range of policy, scholarly, operational, and analytical experience related to terrorism, counterterrorism, and South Asia policy issues.

In meetings from 2022 to 2023, the study group assessed the terrorism threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan and its bearing on US interests, as well as reflected on lessons from efforts to mitigate terrorism risks over the past 20 years. Members then examined what the components of a well-defined and sustainable counterterrorism strategy for the region could be to effectively mitigate existing threats, especially those directed against the US homeland and its allies and partners.

Manila-Beijing Row Worsens As China Yet To Show Evidence Of ‘Secret Deal’ – Analysis

Camille Elemia

Manila’s row with Beijing has worsened in recent weeks, as China insists that the Philippines has violated their alleged secret deals and concessions on the South China Sea, but has not shown any evidence to back its claim.

For its part, the Philippines has consistently denied the existence of such deals or concessions, with some observers saying China’s assertion is part of its divide-and-conquer strategy, and other analysts noting that Beijing has a record of secret agreements that breach global regulations.

The recent controversy between the Philippines and China centers around an alleged secret recording Beijing’s embassy in Manila made of a phone conversation, and released what they said was its transcript to some media organizations.

The call, they said, was between a senior Filipino military official and a Chinese diplomat, during which Manila reportedly agreed on a new model for arranging notifications of resupply missions to Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal.

South Asian Students Targeted by Angry Mob in Kyrgyz Capital

Catherine Putz

On May 17, a video started to circulate on Kyrgyz social media depicting a fight between “foreigners” and Kyrgyz in the front yard of a hostel in the country’s capital, Bishkek. The following night angry crowds of mostly young men gathered in the city. Through the night they protested, blocking a major avenue and attacking dormitories housing students primarily from South Asia, injuring at least 41 people.

Much of the violence took place at the International University of Kyrgyzstan. The rector of the university, Asylbek Aidaraliev, said at a press conference on May 20 that people suddenly began to gather around 1 a.m. “They broke the windows, broke in through the back door, started running around the floors, knocking out doors, glass, taking money and iPhones,” he said.

Aidaraliev noted that the few police present when the attack began did “stood there and didn’t take a single step. True, there were not many of them. Then, as I understood, they tried to intervene, but they were also beaten.”

He suggested that the events were pre-planned: “There was a fight on May 13, and everyone would have forgotten about it. But on May 17, people suddenly gather, for what reason is unclear.”

Britain Accuses China Of Working To Provide Russia With ‘Lethal Aid’

Reid Standish

Britain has accused China of preparing to or already providing ‘lethal aid’ to Russia for its ongoing full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Citing U.S. and British defense intelligence, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said there was evidence that “lethal aid is now, or will be, flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine.”

“Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine,” Shapps told a defense conference in London on May 22.

The British defense minister did not provide details or evidence to back up his claim, but his assertion, the first such accusation from a Western official, would indicate a new level of support for Moscow from Beijing and that China had pivoted to directly supporting Russia’s military.

“We should be concerned about that because in the earlier days of this war, China would like to present itself as a moderating influence on” Russian President Vladimir Putin, Schnapps said, adding that trade data since the Kremlin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of invasion shows that Beijing and Moscow “are covering each other’s backs.”

Tracking China’s Moves On Information Warfare – Analysis

Kalpit A Mankikar and Satyam Singh

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is shifting focus to improving logistical elements that act as a force-multiplier during prolonged wars, learning from active conflicts in Europe and West Asia. Those looking for clues should pay heed to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visits and pronouncements to see how this new approach is being operationalised.

In his capacity as head of the Central Military Commission that oversees the PLA, Xi visited the Army Medical University in Chongqing recently, pitching for greater innovation in battlefield treatment methods, healthcare of soldiers, and coordinated logistical support. He laid emphasis on building better medical universities for the PLA, linking it to strengthening of the war effort in his “New Era”. He called upon the medical students and military personnel to produce a new generation of ‘red military doctors’ who would strengthen the combat effectiveness of troops in war. This is in line with Xi’s repeated calls to improve the preparedness of the PLA. Xi’s visit to the premier military medical facility comes close on the heels of reports that the PLA carried out drills to evacuate injured troops from islands off the Zhejiang province’s coastline. Some strategists have speculated if the military exercise was meant to test PLA battle readinessin a possible event of China’s invasion of Taiwan.

China’s Gray-Zone Tactics Come to America

Denny Roy

China employs various “gray zone” tactics—moderately aggressive actions that are not egregious enough to provoke conventional military retaliation—against multiple adversaries. One such tactic is deployed within the United States: undeclared influence operations through social media. Chinese government-linked activity has recently become more worrisome. Previously, the principal danger was PRC propaganda lulling the U.S. into uncritical acceptance of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) foreign policy agenda. Now, the Chinese government is adding its weight to the forces tearing at America’s national fabric from the inside.

Until recently, the main thrust of PRC-sponsored messaging aimed at Americans through social media was to cultivate a positive image of China and its current government and promote Beijing’s point of view on controversies, such as Taiwan’s political relationship with China, the treatment of Uyghurs and Tibetans, and the restriction of civil liberties in Hong Kong. The content of social media posts was similar to what Chinese diplomats based in the United States were saying when they gave public speeches and TV interviews or wrote editorials for newspapers.

Who Is Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s New Foreign Minister – OpEd

Palestine Chronicle

Ali Bagheri Kani played a prominent role in the negotiations with Western powers, rising to become a pillar of Iran’s foreign ministry.

Born in 1967, Ali Bagheri Kani is an Iranian politician and academic.

He served as assistant foreign minister for political affairs and his name was associated with the negotiations related to Tehran’s nuclear program, as he had led his country’s negotiating team in Vienna and a number of Arab capitals and is considered politically conservative.

Kani was an assistant to the Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili. He played a prominent role in the negotiations with Western powers, rising to become a pillar of Iran’s foreign ministry.

He became a deputy foreign minister and the foreign minister in May 2024 after the death of Amir Hossein-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash on May 19.

The Iranian Nuclear Strategy—Is It About to Change?

Sima Shine & Raz Zimmt

In recent months, as Iran has approached the nuclear threshold and shortened the times for producing nuclear weapons, and as the monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency over the nuclear facilities has significantly declined, Iran could likely decide to change its policy and achieve nuclear weapons capability. Although a decision on this matter poses risks to Iran—military conflict with Israel and possibly even the United States—Iranian leader Ali Khamenei could retreat from his current position that maintaining the nuclear threshold is sufficient. Therefore, through a credible military threat, the Iranian leadership must be convinced that progressing to nuclear weapons will directly endanger the regime’s survival. At the same time, the international community should embark on a series of political and economic moves to persuade Iran to rollback its nuclear program.

In recent years Iranian officials have mentioned the possibility that Iran’s nuclear strategy could shift toward producing nuclear weapons. However, in the past year and especially in recent months, the preoccupation with this issue has increased considerably. Iranian statements often refer to the advanced technological status of their nuclear program, stressing the potential to produce nuclear warheads within a short time. Former head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, claimed in an interview aired on Iranian television in February 2024 that the regime has all the necessary components for nuclear weapons but has not assembled them. Mahmoud Reza Aghamiri, president of Shahid Beheshti University and a nuclear scientist, said in April 2024 that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can at any time withdraw his fatwa banning the production of nuclear weapons and that Iran is capable of producing them.

US Allies Recognize Palestine as a State

Khaleda Rahman

In a historic and co-ordinated move, Ireland, Spain and Norway announced they would recognize a Palestinian state on Wednesday.

The announcements come amid growing outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip from Israel's seven-month war, which has prompted global calls for a ceasefire and lasting solution for peace.

First, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that Norway will officially recognize a Palestinian state as of May 28.

"The Norwegian Government has decided that Norway will recognize Palestine as a state," Støre said. "In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security."

The Palestinian people "have a fundamental, independent right to self-determination," Støre said. "There will be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution. There can be no two-state solution without a Palestinian state."

Why Iran Believes It’s Winning Against Israel

Ali Vaez

On Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and several other officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, died in a helicopter crash. This incident occurred following an unprecedented round of escalation between Iran and Israel in April, sparking speculation on the potential implications for Iran’s regional policy and the ongoing conflict with Israel.

What Raisi’s Death Means for Iran’s Future

Jack Detsch

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on Sunday when a helicopter carrying him and a delegation of other Iranian officials crash-landed in the mountains of northern Iran, throwing the future of the country and the region into further doubt.

No, Rishi Sunak is not a technocrat

Even the papers most friendly to the Conservatives are struggling to find reasons why they might win. You still get the occasional half-hearted mention of 1992, as if that situation bore any resemblance to this one, but the fight has gone out of them.

Instead attention is turning, earlier than usual, to explaining the upcoming defeat, and Rishi Sunak’s inability to improve their fortunes. There is a general consensus that he is terrible at politics. He has never given a memorable speech. His interviews are typically an execrable mish-mash of unjustified boasting and rebarbative defensiveness. His approach to party management is so bad that Natalie Elphicke is somehow now a Labour MP.

So far, so obvious. But the second part of the consensus is that he’s basically a decent, smart, hard-working chap, who is just not cut out of for the performative and irrational world of modern politics. A recent BBC profile quoted sources claiming “He is all duty and hard work” and the “the cleverest person in the room”.

Biden is losing World War III

MARK TOTH AND JONATHAN SWEET

President Joe Biden has become the James Buchanan of the 21st century.

Buchanan, the nation’s 15th president, widely considered history’s worst, sought to mollify everyone, yet in the end pleased no one. Under his rule, the nation drifted ever-closer to secession and Civil War.

More than a century and a half later, the world is devolving into a global ideological World War III. Russia, China and their proxies are actively attacking U.S. interests.

Yet Biden’s National Security Strategy remains rooted in fighting “something less than two simultaneous or overlapping major conflicts,” according to a January Congressional Research Service report entitled “Great Power Competition: Implications for Defense.”

The report notes that, in 2018, the Trump administration was confronted with an Obama-era decision of “building a force not around the demands of two regional conflicts with rogue states, but around the requirements of winning a high-intensity conflict with a single, top-tier competitor — a war with China over Taiwan, for instance, or a clash with Russia in the Baltic region.”

The Ugly Lessons of October 7

EUGENE KONTOROVICH

Hamas’ grisly terror raid on Oct. 7 has proved to be the single most stunningly successful act in gaining support for the Palestinian cause—not among Israeli or American voters, of course, but among top Democratic policymakers, and their counterparts across the Western world. One might think that a campaign of unrepentant killing, torture, rape, and hostage-taking would be disqualifying for a national independence movement. But in Washington, Hamas’ ongoing crimes have resulted in much of the weight of the U.S. government being brought to bear on advancing the cause of Palestinian statehood, and its correlate, the punishment and demonization of the Jewish state.

Months of U.S. backing for the Palestinian national cause have produced glorious results for Palestinian diplomacy. Whereas less than two years ago, at a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas, President Biden had declared that “the ground is not ripe” for renewing negotiations between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the Oct. 7 massacres made Biden change his mind—and make the establishment of a Palestinian state with all deliberate speed a central priority of U.S. Middle East policy. Since Oct. 7, four countries have recognized the “State of Palestine,” with three European states indicating their intent to do so in May. That is more recognition than the PA has won in the entire past decade (notably, only one country moved to recognize Palestinian statehood during the Trump administration).

Pentagon's Russian Oil Red Line Questioned

Isabel van Brugen

The Pentagon's red line on Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure is under scrutiny after an investigation found that some targeted oil refineries have supplied President Vladimir Putin's military with fuel in the ongoing war.

Kyiv began its drone campaign targeting Russian refineries in early January, nearly two years into the war, obstructing gasoline production in Russia and cutting Moscow's export revenues, which are at the heart of the country's war economy.

At least 13 successful attacks have been carried out on Russian oil refineries during the conflict so far, targeting some of the largest in the country and facilities deep inside Russian territory, according to Ukraine. The drone strikes have already disrupted at least 14 percent of Russian oil refinery capacity, the Pentagon's intelligence agency said this month.

Olha Stefanishyna, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said in March that Russian oil refineries were legitimate military targets in the war, although the strikes aren't typically directly claimed by Kyiv but by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) instead.

Fears Russia ‘space weapon’ could be used for cyber warfare ad sabotage

Sam Rucker

The US has accused Russia of launching an anti-satellite weapon into space and placing it in the same orbit as an American probe, leading to fears of possible sabotage and cyber warfare.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder on Tuesday evening said Russia had “launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely [to be] a counter space weapon”.

Ambassador Robert Wood, a US representative to the UN, told a Security Council debate on the ban of space weapons this week that the satellite, launched on 16 May, was “presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.

Why Realists Oppose the War in Gaza

Stephen M. Walt

At first glance, you might think that foreign-policy realists wouldn’t care one way or the other about what Israel is doing in Gaza. Yes, it’s a humanitarian disaster and possibly a genocide, but is brutal behavior all that rare in the conduct of international politics? Aren’t realists the first to point out that in a world with no central authority, governments are going to take the gloves off if they think they will benefit and that no one will stop them? Consider how the United States reacted after Pearl Harbor or after Sept. 11, how Russia is acting in Ukraine, or how the contending forces are behaving in Sudan, and you’ll see what I mean.

Is the War in Gaza Turning Israel Into a Pariah State?

David E. Rosenberg

If Israel needed any more evidence that it is rapidly turning into an international pariah because of the Gaza war, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan provided it on Monday when he said that he was seeking arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

What Happens if Trump Is Convicted? Your Questions, Answered

NIK POPLI

As the Manhattan criminal trial of former President Donald Trump heads into the final stretch, a jury will soon deliver a verdict that could raise a series of unprecedented legal and political questions if Trump is convicted.

The presumptive Republican nominee is currently facing trial on 34 felony counts over allegations that he falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. He’s the first former President in the U.S. ever to be indicted, and while he faces three other criminal cases, the New York case will render the first verdict and may be the only case that gets to trial before the election.

Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified during the trial that Trump personally approved the hush-money reimbursement plan central to the criminal allegations, but questions remain about Cohen’s credibility given his history of lying and committing crimes.

Prosecutors will need to prove to jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely, but that he did so with the intent to commit or conceal another crime related to violating federal and state election laws.

The Global Economy Is More Vulnerable Than It Seems

BERTRAND BADRÉ and YVES TIBERGHIEN

Today’s economic outlook is strangely contradictory. While global markets, led by technology and energy, have been ebullient over high short-term profits, the mood at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last month was decidedly somber. Two global institutions that normally speak in banalities issued strong warnings about the growing risks of economic fragmentation.

The idea that an interdependent global economy can work within a geopolitical system based on the national sovereignty of nearly 200 states has always reflected a certain amount of idealism. Or perhaps it was more like hubris. This strange marriage did, after all, collapse in the 1930s, with the division lasting through the end of World War II.

But idealism was not dead, and the global system was subsequently rebuilt on a foundation of agreed rules, shared international institutions, a degree of mutual forbearance, and crisis management. From the start, security considerations were kept as separate as possible from the economy, but this became especially important in the 1990s, when countries with radically different regimes began integrating into the global economy.

How AI Is Changing Tech Policy Politics in Washington

Bruce Mehlman, Matt Perault

In the tech sector, the political alliances that drive policymaking shift rapidly. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is changing them again. These new dynamics will influence the scope and scale of AI regulation in the United States and throughout the world.

In the first phase of internet-era tech policy, large majorities on both the left (“new Democrats”) and the right (“free market conservatives”) viewed technology as a force for good and the companies that created tech products as the crown jewels of American entrepreneurship and ingenuity (see Table 1). New economy acolytes battled old economy advocates over immigration, intellectual property, taxation, and regulation, with a bipartisan majority believing that what’s good for the internet was good for America.

The second phase witnessed more traditional liberal-conservative divides. The left sought tighter rules to control what they perceived as market failures and protect consumers, such as net neutrality and privacy rules, while the right wanted less interference with free speech and free enterprise.

Fox in the Henhouse: The Growing Harms of North Korea’s Remote IT Workforce

Glenn Chafetz

North Korea has quietly seeded thousands of information technology (IT) professionals into contractors and subcontractors that serve the United States’ largest and most profitable companies. These workers operate under American or third country false identities. This IT army’s main objective is to earn money for the perpetually cash strapped Kim Jong Un regime. These funds support North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and prop up Kim’s dictatorship.

In addition, North Korean arms are now findings their way into conflicts around the world. Russia has started to use North Korean missiles to conduct strikes inside Ukraine and North Korean munitions have been used by Hamas in attacks against Israel forces in Gaza. All of this is made possible because of funds flowing from IT workers into North Korean government coffers.

Moreover, the access that these North Korean infiltrators have gained within U.S. companies provides the Kim regime multiple vectors for the theft of intellectual property (IP), the holding of U.S. data hostage for ransom, attacks on critical infrastructure, and the launching of cyber attacks. Thus, American companies are unknowingly funding an enemy state dedicated to their own degradation and destruction.

Don’t Believe the AI Hype

DARON ACEMOGLU

According to tech leaders and many pundits and academics, artificial intelligence is poised to transform the world as we know it through unprecedented productivity gains. While some believe that machines soon will do everything humans can do, ushering in a new age of boundless prosperity, other predictions are at least more grounded. For example, Goldman Sachs predicts that generative AI will boost global GDP by 7% over the next decade, and the McKinsey Global Institute anticipates that the annual GDP growth rate could increase by 3-4 percentage points between now and 2040. For its part, The Economist expects that AI will create a blue-collar bonanza.

Is this realistic? As I note in a recent paper, the outlook is far more uncertain than most forecasts and guesstimates suggest. Still, while it is basically impossible to predict with any confidence what AI will do in 20 or 30 years, one can say something about the next decade, because most of these near-term economic effects must involve existing technologies and improvements to them.

Google Cloud VP: "Cyber attacks are psychological warfare"

Adiel Eithan Mustaki

The conversation with Sandra Joyce, vice president at Google Cloud and head of Mandiant Intelligence at Google, takes place two hours after the release of the report by the Israeli cybersecurity giant Check Point that revealed that the amount of Iranian cyber attacks against Israel has doubled since October 7.

Joyce's job is to assess the risks and threats in the world of cyber and information security in order to know which threats Israel needs to watch out for. According to Joyce, the challenge is not only dealing with the direct consequences of the cyber attacks, but also with the attacks' ability to undermine public trust in the country and the attempt to dismantle social cohesion through fake accounts on social networks.

Do we have reason to fear the increase in Iranian attacks since October 7?

"Even before October 7, Iran acted extensively against Israel in the cyber field, as well as against other countries. We also saw attacks by Hamas. So even before the war, for years, there was a challenging environment in terms of cybersecurity in Israel. On the other hand, another thing we saw that was interesting is that after October 7, many groups from Iran carried out relatively simple attacks and actions, such as defacement of a website for a limited period, and then claim that they were able to gain access to databases and data and publicize the damage in a much more significant way than what actually happened. There is a sort of "information operation", part of which is also directed at Israel. I think this is the interesting area - this intersection between the goals and capabilities of cyber attacks and the information operation."

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