Namrata Goswami’s research on the Naga armed ethnic movement offers a compelling narrative on how conflict has affected the daily lives of the Nagas. This volume is an account of the Naga ethnic movement going on in India since 1918, covering both historical and contemporary aspects of the conflict. Based on over a decade of ethnographic work among the Naga rebels and movement zones, personal interviews, and secondary data, the author offers insights into how the Naga population perceives their meeting point with the institutions of the Indian state, especially the army and the paramilitary. The book documents what it is like, to live in a conflict zone and the restraints and thought processes that it cultivates especially among the youth. The book reveals gripping stories of tremendous courage and conviction from people who have thought about the political unrest, been born into it, taken part in it, or have been affected by it. The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland reflects the Nagas’ love for their land, tracing the poignant mix of nature, land, identity, emotions, culture as well as the inter-ethnic differences that exacerbate the conflict.

In this issue, we have put forward a variety of ideas contributing to the fulcrum of power, paradigm of science and technology and conceptualisation of the management of conflict. Thus, the present volume discusses at a global level the role of the vicissitudes of the future of land warfare, artificial intelligence, the ambitious nature of China’s expansionist policy and its quest for modernisation, the relevance of the Indo-Pacific region, India’s oil security, India’s civil-military relationship, its interest and role in the affairs of the Indo-Pacific region, and assessment of the American grand strategy in Asia. Writings to observe in hindsight the participation by the Indian armed forces beyond the international borders, reviewing how India manages its national security and how the role of the Indian Army is perceived internationally as drawn from the book reviews and opinion pieces.

In the Shadows of Naga Insurgency is a fine-grained critique of the Naga struggle for political redemption, the state’s response to it, and the social corollaries and carry-overs of protracted political conflict on everyday life. Offering an ethnographic underview, Jelle Wouters illustrates an ‘insurgency complex’ that reveals how embodied experiences of resistance and state aggression, violence and volatility, and struggle and suffering link together to shape social norms, animate local agitations, and complicate inter-personal and inter-tribal relations in expected and unexpected ways. The book locates the historical experiences and agency of the Naga people and relates these to ordinary villagers’ perceptions, actions, and moral reasoning vis-à-vis both the Naga Movement and the state and its lucrative resources. It thus presses us to rethink our views on tribalism, conflict and ceasefire, development, corruption, and democratic politics.

Seventh in the annual series, this volume focuses on civil society movements in South Asia, besides covering armed conflicts in the region in 2012. The first section addresses the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, and the situation in Northeast India and Naxalite violence; the second assesses peace audits in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jammu and Kashmir, along with the peace process in Nagaland.