Iskander Rehman is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Iskander Rehman was an associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow. His research focuses on security and crisis stability in Asia, specifically the geopolitical ramifications of naval nuclearization in the Indian Ocean.
Prior to joining Carnegie, Rehman held fellowships at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC, as well as at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses and the Observer Research Foundation, both in New Delhi. He received a two-year grant for his work on South Asian naval dynamics from the French Ministry of Defense in 2008.
His work on issues ranging from Sino-Indian rivalry in Asia to Australia’s potential future role in Air-Sea Battle has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Asian Security and the Naval War College Review as well as in various think tank policy papers. His research has been featured in the Economist, the Financial Times, and the Guardian. From 2008 to 2011, he was a regular contributor to BBC World Service, specializing in Asian territorial disputes.
He is currently completing his doctorate in comparative politics at Sciences Po, Paris.
As India expands its maritime capabilities, new questions have arisen as to whether it has a coherent maritime strategy or the institutional foundations necessary to secure India’s equities, particularly in an increasingly contested Indian Ocean region.
As India and Pakistan develop their naval nuclear forces, some experts fear a potentially volatile maritime environment in the Indian Ocean.
As India and Pakistan develop their naval nuclear forces, they will enter increasingly murky waters. By further institutionalizing relations between their navies, both countries may succeed in adding a greater degree of stability to a dangerously volatile maritime environment.
Although New Delhi has long recognized the importance of the Indian Ocean, it has only recently begun to display the underpinnings of a true maritime geostrategy.
With the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as the epicenter of global maritime activity, the rise of the Indian Navy has drawn much attention.
For relatively small coastal states such as Pakistan and Israel, the quest for maritime depth has given birth to naval nuclear force structures with the potential to undermine stability during a crisis.
Despite Washington's efforts to construct stronger ties with China, relations between the two countries have been repeatedly buffeted by a series of tensions and misunderstandings.
One of the defining geopolitical narratives of this past half-decade has been the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as the maritime epicenter of global activity. In reality, however, the sudden recognition of the Indian Ocean’s centrality is anything but a new phenomenon.
European history is replete with moments which can offer insight into some of the more complex-and potentially disquieting-facets of China's emergence as a major geopolitical actor.
The Indian Navy has had to grapple for years with receiving only a meager portion of the nation's defense budget.