Imagining an Indian National Security Strategy: the sum of its parts

India’s power and interests continue to grow in the Indo-Pacific region and globally, yet its national security policymaking approaches have not kept pace. These may have been barely adequate for India’s twentieth-century experience as a regional power tending towards strategic restraint, but currently constrain India from being able to harness its considerable national capabilities to protect larger and more complex interests. This article identifies five key obstacles to a more coherent and effective approach to national security: lack of staffing depth in policy and intelligence; weak structures for ensuring inclusive consultation in policymaking; a disempowered military when it comes to strategic decisions; a lack of security expertise among civilian officials and politicians; and an absence of whole-of-government guidance in making and expressing policy. Many reforms are necessary, but two enabling early steps are identified and recommended: the creation of a Chief of Defence Staff position to elevate military coordination and authoritative input to policy, and the preparation of a National Security Strategy to define and guide overall policy.     

In defence of the Indo-Pacific: Australia's new strategic map

The 2013 Australian Defence White Paper categorically termed Australia's zone of strategic interest the Indo-Pacific, the first time any government has defined its region this way. This raises questions about what the Indo-Pacific means, whether it is a coherent strategic system, the provenance of the concept and its implications for Asian security as well as Australian policy. Indo-Pacific Asia can best be understood as an expansive definition of a maritime super-region centred on South-East Asia, arising principally from the emergence of China and India as outward-looking trading states and strategic actors. It is a strategic system insofar as it involves the intersecting interests of key powers such as China, India and the USA, although the Indo-Pacific subregions will retain their own dynamics too. It suits Australia's two-ocean geography and expanding links with Asia, including India. The concept is, however, not limited to an Australian perspective and increasingly reflects US, Indian, Japanese and Indonesian ways of seeing the region. It also reflects China's expanding interests in the Indian Ocean, suggesting that the Chinese debate may shift towards partial acceptance of Indo-Pacific constructs alongside Asia-Pacific and East Asian ones, despite suspicions about its association with the US rebalance to Asia. Questions about Australia's ability to implement an effective Indo-Pacific strategy must account for force posture, alliance ties and defence diplomacy, as well as constraints on force structure and spending.     

Australian Security and Development in Solomon Islands

This paper considers the Australian intervention in Solomon Islands as evidence of Mark Duffield's claim that the concept of development has been reinterpreted or ‘radicalised’ in the post-Cold War period. Duffield's contention that development now incorporates more transformative measures to address the concern among Northern states for conflict resolution is presented as a manifestation of the security–development nexus. The following argues that although Duffield's analysis cannot be applied to Solomon Islands without qualification, his claims provide insights into the disjuncture between Australian governmental declarations, policy and policy outcomes in regard to the ongoing Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.     

The role of time-lapse bathymetric surveys in assessing morphological change at shipwreck sites

Data from time-lapse single-beam and multi-beam bathymetric surveys are used to assess the rate and scale of morphological change at shipwreck sites caused by anthropogenic forcing. The technique is illustrated by characterizing changes in wreck site morphology over two sites located on the east coast of Ireland – the Drogheda Boat site on the River Boyne and the Arklow Bank site in the Irish Sea. Results indicate that repeated bathymetric surveys accurately and rapidly capture morphological change, with time-lapse accretion–erosion models indicating possible erosion rates of up to 0.04 m per day and accretion rates of 0.36 m per day at dynamic riverine and marine sites in response to external triggers. These data are valuable in understanding site formation processes at fully submerged archaeological sites and in the derivation of high-resolution site formation models.     

The role of scour in shipwreck site formation processes and the preservation of wreck-associated scour signatures in the sedimentary record – evidence from seabed and sub-surface data

Fully submerged shipwreck sites act as open systems, with the exchange of material (sediment, water, organic and inorganic objects) and energy (wave, tidal, storm) across system boundaries. Formation processes at wreck sites are driven by some combination of chemical, biological and physical processes, with physical processes dominant in initial phases of site formation. Scouring and associated depositional patterns that form in response to hydrodynamic forcing are commonly the dominant physical processes acting at shipwreck sites. Scour is initiated by the introduction of a shipwreck to the seafloor, leading to increases in flow velocity and turbulent intensity around the structure. Near-field and far-field scour pits form at wreck sites due to the interaction of horseshoe and lee wake vortices with the mobile substrate. The morphology of resultant scour signatures are controlled by the orientation of the wreck structure in relation to the prevailing hydrodynamic regime, the morphology and size of the wreck and individual site components, the hydrodynamic regime (currents, waves or combined waves and currents), bathymetry and the geology of the site (seafloor and sub-surface conditions). Individual objects or artefacts may act as nuclei to promote scour at a local scale. Under high-energy conditions, groups of artefacts and/or disarticulated structural components emanating from a wreck may compound natural scour processes by rolling or sliding. Under suitable environmental conditions, wreck-associated scour features can be preserved in the sedimentary record.     

Faith-based Queer Space in Washington,DC: The Metropolitan Community Church-DC and Mount Vernon Square

Religion and spirituality are important in queer place-making processes. More than a private part of life relegated beneath sexual identity, religious affiliation and spirituality motivate queers to interpret, experience, and shape space in distinct ways. Just as studies of queer residential spaces have neglected religion and spirituality, so have studies of queer religiosity and spirituality ignored less morally charged arenas of life such as residential choices and gentrification. Considering the material impact of spirituality and religion and understanding competing visions for the future of space in queer residential communities contributes to a clearer view of queer residential strategies. In Washington, DC, Christian queers are working with others to shape a distinct residential space called Mount Vernon Square. This ethnographic study offers a broader framework for understanding how some queers integrate sexuality and spirituality in their residential choices.