1700-1800 Palo Alto, 14 November 2022
0900-1000 Singapore, 15 November 2022

This event is OFF THE RECORD.

US-India relations appeared to hit a plateau in 2022. The two countries’ different responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine exposed the depth of India’s long-standing defense dependence on Russia. That lingering relationship still inhibits the current-day US-India security partnership. How can the United States and India work to surmount this hurdle? This webinar presents research-in-progress by Erin Mello, a visiting scholar at APARC. It examines the impediments to deepening the US-India defense relationship, and each side’s current strategic priorities; and offers policy recommendations, at both the strategic and operational levels, to help offset India’s dependence on Russia.

Panelists

Erin Mello is a Visiting Scholar for the 2022-2023 fall quarter at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University. Mello currently serves as an analyst for the United States Indo-Pacific Command, and is a member of the Hawaii Air National Guard. While at APARC, Mello is conducting research on building integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, examining barriers to U.S.-India security cooperation, and how to overcome them.

S. Paul Kapur is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He recently served in government, in the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, working on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and U.S.-India relations. He the author of two books, and coauthor of a third, and also consults for the US Department of Defense. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago.

Yogesh Joshi is a Research Fellow at the Institute for South Asia Studies at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on India’s foreign and security policy, and especially the evolution of India’s military power and its approach to the use of force. He is the coauthor of three books, including two on India’s nuclear forces, policy, and doctrine. Prior to joining NUS, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and he holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Moderator:

Arzan Tarapore is the South Asia research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, where he leads the South Asia Initiative. His research focuses on military strategy, Indian defense policy, and contemporary Indo-Pacific security issues. Prior to his scholarly career, he served as an analyst in the Australian Defence Department. Arzan holds a PhD from King’s College London.

India’s role and prospects as a strategic competitor to China come down to two broad factors: its intent and its capacity. In the midst of intensifying U.S.-China competition, this webinar examines India’s intent and capacity to be an effective player in the Indo-Pacific’s strategic competition. On intent, India has steadfastly insisted since 2020 that the bilateral relationship cannot progress unless “peace and tranquility” are restored to their unsettled border; but in recent months India has also engaged diplomatically with China. On capacity, India’s economic performance lies at the core of its national power, but reforms have been haphazard and its recent economic performance has attracted doubts over its long-term potential. Has India struck the right balance of defiance and conciliation in its foreign policy? Is it doing enough to unleash its enormous economic and demographic potential? In both dimensions, how robust is – and should be – coordination with the United States?

 

Speakers:

Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, one of India’s oldest and most respected national dailies, and hosts a weekly online show "WorldView with Suhasini Haidar." Over the course of her 28-year reporting career, Suhasini has reported from across the region and the world, including Kashmir, where she was injured in a bomb blast. In India, she has covered the foreign affairs beat for over a decade, and was the recipient of the most prestigious Indian print journalism award, the Prem Bhatia. Suhasini began her career at CNN's United Nation's bureau in New York. She holds Bachelor's degree at Lady Shriram College in Delhi, and a Masters in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University

Arvind Subramanian is the Meera & Vikram Gandhi Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, and a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, at Brown University. He was previously a professor of economics at Ashoka University, and the chief economic adviser to the Government of India between 2014 and 2018. Prior to that, he taught at Harvard, researched at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and worked at the IMF and GATT. In 2018, Professor Subramanian published Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi-Jaitley Economy, reflecting on his time guiding India’s economy. He holds a DPhil from Oxford.

Moderator:

Arzan Tarapore is the South Asia research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, where he leads the South Asia Initiative. His research focuses on military strategy, Indian defense policy, and contemporary Indo-Pacific security issues. Prior to his scholarly career, he served as an analyst in the Australian Defence Department. Arzan holds a PhD from King’s College London.

 

This event is part of APARC’s 2022 Fall webinar series, Asian Perspectives on the U.S.-China Competition. 

How is India posturing to manage strategic competition in the Indian Ocean? Thus far US-China security competition has been most acute in the western Pacific, but Chinese capability growth and strategic policies suggest that it also seeks a leading role in the northern Indian Ocean, in the not-too-distant future. India has traditionally considered itself the natural dominant power in the Indian Ocean region, but it has never faced the scale and types of competition that China will present. Does India have the wherewithal to maintain its leadership in the region? How will India work with the United States, bilaterally and through groupings such as the Quad, as they seek to maintain the status quo in the face of Chinese challenges? Is the Indian Ocean bound for militarized competition, or can India, the US, and China find a pathway to strategic coexistence?

Panelist

Dr. Sinderpal Singh is Senior Fellow and Assistant Director, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, and concurrently Coordinator of the South Asia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In the fall of 2022, he has been appointed as the McCain Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the United States Naval Academy. His research interests include the international relations of South Asia with a special focus on Indian foreign policy, the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean Region, and India-Southeast Asia relations. He is currently writing a book on India’s role in the Indian Ocean since 1992 and is the author of India in South Asia: Domestic Identity Politics and Foreign Policy from Nehru to the BJP (Routledge 2013). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, his MA from the Australian National University, and his BA from the National University of Singapore.

Moderator

Dr. Arzan Tarapore is the South Asia research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, where he leads the newly-restarted South Asia Initiative. His research focuses on military strategy, Indian defense policy, and contemporary Indo-Pacific security issues. Prior to his scholarly career, he served as an analyst in the Australian Defence Department. Arzan holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College London.

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia

May 17, 5- 6 p.m. Pacific Time
May 18, 5:30 - 6:30 a.m. Indian Standard Time

India has long portrayed itself as having a foreign policy guided by principles of justice. For decades, it stood above the ruthless geopolitics of the Cold War – in word if not in deed – and instead fashioned itself as a champion of decolonization and international equality. Today, with nonalignment apparently passé, several states have begun to embrace feminism and related principles as a basis for a normative, or principled foreign policy. This webinar will examine what a feminist foreign policy would look like for India. In such a foreign policy, how would feminism intersect with other values, such as environmentalism; to what extent would it clash with or reinforce national interests; and does India have the domestic political foundations to sustain such a normative policy?

Panelists

Ms Ambika Vishwanath is the Co-Founder and Director of the Kubernein Initiative, a geopolitical advisory group. Ambika is a geopolitical analyst and water security specialist with experience in the field of governance and foreign policy. She has led Track 2 diplomacy efforts and consulted with several governments and international organizations in the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia, and helped shape their policies in the field of conflict resolution, water diplomacy, and security. At Kubernein, she leads their flagship program on Gender and Indian Foreign Policy and projects on water, climate, and security. The first Indian to be invited as a member of the prestigious Munich Young Leaders Network, she is also a China-India Visiting Scholars Fellow, 2020 – 2021, Ashoka University, and a Non-Resident Fellow with the Agora Institute, Germany.

Moderator

Arzan Tarapore is the South Asia research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, where he leads the newly-restarted South Asia research initiative. He is also a senior non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research. His research focuses on Indian military strategy and contemporary Indo-Pacific security issues. Prior to his scholarly career, he served as an analyst in the Australian Defense Department. Arzan holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College London. 

 

This event is part of the 2022 Spring webinar series, Negotiating Women's Rights and Gender Equality in Asia, sponsored by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

This Conference will be held in person on our Stanford University Campus.
Only register if you are attending the Conference in person.

About the Conference

The inaugural conference of the South Asia Initiative at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) focuses on the role that critical and emerging technologies can play in India’s national security. These technologies promise to deliver enormous advantages as powers like India and China compete for security and influence. India’s ability to deploy critical and emerging technologies will shape not only its military power but also its resilience and self-sufficiency, which the Indian government sees as key national goals in a post-pandemic world. To develop these technologies, India’s national security establishment will need new policy settings – including new relationships with private industry – and new ways of cooperating with key partners, especially the United States.

Our conference will be a unique forum bringing together academic experts, senior policymakers, and leading industry representatives to develop this critical policy agenda. Keynote speeches and panel discussions will contemplate the changing character of national security, the imperatives for public-private cooperation on technology policy, and the implications for national and foreign policy. In keeping with our policy-focused mission, we look forward not only to fostering important dialogues but also to convening problem-solvers with different perspectives, to understand and act on new technologies’ role in strategic competition.

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Conference Agenda

8:30-8:45 a.m.
Opening and Welcome Remarks

Prof. Gi-Wook Shin, Director of Asia-Pacific Research Center and Korea Program, Stanford
Dr. Arzan Tarapore, Research Scholar, Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford

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8:45-9:30 a.m.
Keynote address: “Technology’s Role in Managing India’s Security Challenges.”

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, India
Introduction by Prof. Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford

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9:30-10:45 a.m.
Panel 1: Redefining the Military’s Relationship with Technology

Moderated by Dr. Arzan Tarapore, Research Scholar, Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford

LtGen Stephen D. Sklenka, Deputy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
LtGen (ret.) Raj Shukla, ARTRAC
Ms. Kari Bingen, Hawkeye 360
Ms. Heather Richman, BMNT

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10:45-11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break

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11:00 a.m. -12:15 p.m.
Panel 2: The Way Forward in Defense Innovation

Moderated by Mr. Steve Blank, Adjunct Professor, Management Science and Engineering, Stanford

Mr. Sanjay Jaju, Director iDEX (Virtual)
Mr. Mike Brown, Director DIU
Ms. Colleen Laughlin, Defense Innovation Board
Ms. Lauren Bedula, Silicon Valley Defense Group

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12:15-2:00 p.m.
Lunch

Fireside chat: "Looking Forward: Critical and Emerging Technology in the U.S.-India Relationship"

Mr. Jose W. Fernandez, Under-Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and Environment (virtual)
Introduction by Amb. Scot Marciel, Visiting Practitioner Fellow on Southeast Asia, Stanford

Fireside chat: "A New Agenda for US-India Relations"

Amb. Atul Keshap, USIBC (Virtual)
Mr. Vikram Singh, USIP and USISPF

With Dr. Joe Felter, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, Stanford

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2:00-2:15 p.m.
Coffee Break

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2:15-3:45 p.m.
Panel 3: Start-Up Success Stories

Moderated by: Sridhar Narayanan, Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business
 

Mr. Vinayak Dalmia, 3rditech
Ms. Vrinda Kapoor, 114AI (Virtual)
Mr. John Martellaro, Skanda Defense
Ms. Jacqueline Tame, GameBreaker AI

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3:45-4:00pm
Concluding Remarks

​Breakfast, lunch, and afternoon refreshments will be served at the conference.

Parking information can be found on our Shorenstein APARC Contact Us page.