IntelliBriefs

 Downloads  Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605DescriptionAkbar the Great Mogul, 1542‒1605 is a biography of Akbar I (reigned, 1556‒1605), the third and greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. The author, Vincent Arthur Smith, was an Irish-born historian and antiquary who served in the Indian Civil Service before turning to full-time research and scholarship. After assuming the throne while still a youth, Akbar succeeded in consolidating and enlarging the Mughal Empire. He instituted reforms of the tax structure, the organization and control of the military, and the religious establishment and its relationship to the state. He was also a patron of culture and the arts, and he had a keen interest in religion and the possible sources of religious knowledge. The book traces Akbar’s ancestry and early years; his accession to the throne and his regency under Bayram Khan; his many conquests, including Bihar, the Afghan kingdom of Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, Kashmir, Sind, parts of Orissa, and par…

28 JUL 2020 - 15:53 TERUG NAAR ARCHIEFAuthor(s): Sibylle Bauer New technologies give rise to previously unconsidered scenarios in arms control. In this ninth episode of the Clingendael Spectator series on arms control, Sibylle Bauer[1]explains how technological developments blur traditional categories of weaponry and reduce the time window for human decision making – arguably creating an ‘illusion of human control’. Confidence building and strategic empathy, along with decompartmentalising arms control agendas, will be key to finding a way forward.Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing… The buzz around technological developments and their impact on the use of force is very visible in the media, the policy world, and the focus of think tanks.Today, numerous arms control regimes are being abolished, contributing to the partial collapse of the global arms control architecture. This can be attributed to ongoing Great Power competition, regardless of these new technology d…

The Indo-Pacific is one of the most strongly contested regions and ideas in present times. As the dilemma over its potential ability to act as a multipolar strategic system limiting Chinese power continues, Rory Medcalf, Head, National Security College, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific in his new book, “Indo-Pacific Empire: China, America and the Contest for the World’s Pivotal Region”, provides a refreshing broad-brush account of the Indo-Pacific and the tensions that exist in the region through the use of history, geopolitics, cartography, military strategy, and economics.With the question of managing China’s dominance at the core of the book, it investigates the history of the region defined as maritime or continental, China’s perception of the Indo-Pacific as a threat to its power and the potential for multipolar agency and solidarity among the non-US and non-China middle players of the world. What kind of global power is China on its way to becoming? What are the consequences …

Ryan Turpin May 29 · 12 min read
Fact: law enforcement officials in Finland are more widely trusted by citizens than are their peers in the United States.It’s not a slim margin, either. Finnish police officers are supposedly considered trustworthy by about 95% of the population, while in America, only around half of survey respondents believe they can trust the police.I found this interesting and decided to try and figure out why the difference is so dramatic.If like me, you want a simple and straightforward answer, I can go ahead and tell you that there isn’t one. The more I researched, the more I realized how complex a topic it is. But even though I didn’t find one overarching factor that could account for such a huge gap, I did find a lot of compelling information that sheds light on the subject.The first question I needed to tackle was is it true? If we go by surveys, then yes, it does appear to be. In Finland, the relevant survey is called Poliisibarometri, which translates directl…

India’s police-to-population ratio lags behind most countries and the United Nations-recommended ratio of 222.
4 min read.19 Jun 2019Sriharsha Devulapalli, Vishnu Padmanabhan
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-s-police-force-among-the-world-s-weakest-1560925355383.html
Many of the issues with India’s understaffed, overburdened police could stem from the growing criminalization of politics and reluctance for reformTopicsPlain FactsNational Police CommissionIndian Police ServicePolice Drafting Committee
A brutal attack on a young doctor in West Bengal, allegedly by relatives of a patient who died on 10 June, triggered country-wide protests by doctors in the country. The incident highlights not just tensions in doctor-patient relationships but also points to a lack of respect for the rule of law in the country, which leads mobs to take the law into their own hands to deliver instant ‘justice’.According to a 2018 survey of 15,562 respondents across 22 states on perceptions about polici…