“Southern (Dis)Comfort” is a special series from War on the Rocks and the Stimson Center that seeks to unpack the dynamics of intensifying competition—military, economic, diplomatic—in Southern Asia, principally among China, India, Pakistan, and the United States.

Below is a list of all the War on the Rocks Southern (Dis)Comfort publications:

Southern Asia’s Escalating Strategic Competition
By Sameer Lalwani and Travis Wheeler
August 7, 2017
Pakistan’s Search for Its Place in Southern Asia’s Evolving Order
By Sannia Abdullah
August 14, 2017
China’s Military Base in Djibouti: Strategic Implications for India
By Abhijit Singh
August 21, 2017
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Limits of U.S. Influence
By Christopher Clary
August 23, 2017
Countering Chinese Coercion: The Case of Doklam
By Oriana Skylar Mastro and Arzan Tarapore
August 29, 2017
Southern Asia Is Heating Up: An Indian Perspective
By Brig. (Ret.) Gurmeet Kanwal
September 13, 2017
Angling for Advantage: Iran’s Differential Approach to Southern Asia
By Hussein Banai
September 15, 2017
“India Is Our Brother, China Is Our Friend:” Navigating Great Power Rivalry in Southern Asia
By Rohan Mukherjee and Darren Lim
September 22, 2017
Why the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Will Worsen Tensions in Southern Asia
By Dan Markey
September 28, 2017
Did China Use Water as a Weapon in the Doklam Standoff?
By Joel Wuthnow
October 4, 2017
Through a Periscope Darkly: The Nuclear Undersea Competition in Southern Asia Is Just Beginning
By Diana Wueger
October 18, 2017
Nuclear Stability, Conventional Instability: North Korea and the Lessons from Pakistan
By Ankit Panda and Vipin Narang
November 20, 2017
Reinjecting Realism: Towards a Pragmatic and Effective Pakistani Foreign Policy
By Yaqoob Khan Bangash
December 6, 2017
India and the Untied States Should Revisit Their Opposition to China-Led Connectivity
By Arif Rafiq
December 26, 2017
Be Careful What You Wish For: Legacies, Realignments, and Russia’s Evolving Role in South Asia
By Olga Oliker
December 27, 2017
Is Japan Ready for the Quad? Opportunities and Challenges for Tokyo in a Changing Indo-Pacific
By Yuki Tatsumi
January 9, 201
Nuclear Weapons Did Not Embolden Pakistan: Drawing the Right Lessons for North Korea
By Negeen Pegahi
January 22, 2018
America Has High Expectations for India. Can New Delhi Deliver?
By Paul Staniland
February 22, 2018
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands: India’s Eastern Anchor in a Changing Indo-Pacific
By Darshana Baruah
March 21, 2018
When India’s Backyard Meets China’s Strategic Periphery: The View from Beijing.
By Yang Xiaoping
April 20, 2018
Doklam, One Year Later; China’s Long Game in the Himalayas
By Joel Wuthnow, Satu Limaye, and Nilanthi Samaranayake
June 7, 2018
Buyer’s remorse: Pakistan’s elections and the precarious future of the China-Pakistan economic corridor
By Andrew Small
July 27, 2018
How India Will React to the Rise of China: The Soft-Balancing Strategy Reconsidered
By T.V. Paul
September 17, 2018
Angles and Dangles: Arihant and the Dilemma of India’s Undersea Nuclear Weapons
By Yogesh Joshi
January 14, 2019
The Great Game Moves to Sea: Tripolar Competition in the Indian Ocean Region
By Harry I. Hannah
April 1, 2019
‘Quality Infrastructure’: Japan’s Robust Challenge to China’s Belt and Road
By Tobias Harris
April 9, 2019
The Elephant in the Room: Auditing the Past and Future of the U.S.-India Partnership
By Sameer Lalwani and Heather Byrne
June 26, 2019

For more on Stimson’s work on strategic competition in Southern Asia, please check out the transcripts and videos from two panels at our May 2017 conference:

  • Panel 1: “Cold Start and Frozen Conflict: Competitive Dynamics on Air and Land” featuring Brig. (Ret.) Gurmeet Kanwal, Sannia Abdullah, and Oriana Skylar Mastro (transcript) (video)
  • Panel 2: “Boomers, Baburs, and Bastions: Competitive Maritime Developments” featuring Nilanthi Samaranayake, Christopher Clary, and Iskander Rehman (transcript) (video)

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