A project on “Developing a Framework for Regional Cooperation in Southern Asia”  is being undertaken by the IPCS with support from the MacArthur Foundation. The project seeks to sustain and strengthen the process by which India and China are able to cooperate on the key challenges affecting their bilateral relationship and, to involve their smaller neighbors in their economic growth stories.

Since its inception, the IPCS has been working on various issues related to disarmament, especially Nuclear Disarmament. We are the only research institute in South Asia that focuses on all aspects of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), including  Chemical, Biological and Radiological weapons. We have undertaken numerous projects, both on an individual and collaborative basis, on the issue of WMDs.

Extending this work further, the IPCS is now partnering with the Nuclear Security Project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), working towards global nuclear security. Click here for more

The IPCS Southeast Asia Research programme, aims to promote research on Southeast Asia in India, map the existing nature and dynamics of India-Southeast Asia relations, and highlight current political, economic and security developments of mutual concern. It further seeks to provide a platform for greater deliberation among policy-makers and academics, and to generate a pool of well researched knowledge on various policies concerning India and Southeast Asia, through organizing events and publishing reports.

This Programme is supported by the SAEA Group, Singapore.

This project is undertaken by the Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks (COSATT) with support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF). The first round of dialogue took place in Kathamndu in January 2009

South Asia is the most violent region in the world today. Serious armed conflicts rage in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Nepal has been restive of late and violence continues in Jammu & Kashmir, India’s Northeast and the Naxal affected belt running from South to east India through Central India and along parts of the eastern coastal states.

The Institute has been extensively and consistently monitoring these conflicts since 2006. We have been publishing an annual volume documenting these conflicts - changes in violent trends, tactics, state and non-state actors involved - and efforts being made towards conflict mitigation and management. The 2007 and 2008 volumes titled Armed Conflicts in South Asia have been published by Routledge. The third volume is under production and will be published by mid-2009

This project is a follow up of an earlier project that the Institute undertook in 2008 titled - Kashmir Dispute: Making Borders Irrelevant. This project aims to answer the following questions: How can the tourism industry be developed in such a way to increase confidence between India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir region, and in a way that can promote conflict management? Which sectors in particular would need to be constructively engaged in sustainable and conflict-sensitive tourism development?
This project is funded by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

The events of 9/11 catapulted concerns about ‘failed’ states to the centre stage of world politics. These states are those that are believed to provide fertile breeding ground for terror networks, since they are seen to provide ideal conditions for training, indoctrination, access to weapons and financial resources for their activities. It is commonly argued that weak and failing states are the primary bases for operations for most ‘US-designated foreign terrorist organizations’, including the al-Qaeda, since states that are not in control of their own territories and people, are seen as suffering from a ‘vacuum’ that terrorists, criminal groups or insurgents can fill up.

While there have been numerous theories and formulations on the idea of Weak and Failing States, mostly they have been authored by scholars from West. The Institute is working on the subject to understand from a South Asian perspective.

To address contemporary concerns related to nuclear weapons, WMD threats, nuclear disarmament and regional security, the Institute organizes capacity building workshops for young scholars in New Delhi. The objective of these workshops is to build awareness on WMD threats and reintroduce the disarmament debate among young scholars in New Delhi. In 2008, the Institute organized two capacity building workshops and one in 2009. 
This project is supported by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).

To address the contemporary challenges in nuclear weapons, regional security and disarmament and build a more informed younger community of scholars, the Institute along with Universities, Colleges and Think-tanks organizes regional workshops. Two workshops were held in 2008 in Chennai, and the third workshop will be held in Bangalore during February 2009.

Many initiatives on peace and confidence building in the subcontinent have been held hostage to events in Kashmir valley. It is imperative to keep the dialogue process open, so as to reach an understanding on resolution of various conflicts between India and Pakistan.

This project aims to facilitate a dialogue process on major bilateral issues and keeping official channels informed, with an objective to formulate areas of common action and policies. A key objective of this project is also to build a core group of concerned senior experts to address these issues of mutual concern and suggest feasible alternative resolution mechanisms. This project is supported by the Ploughshares Foundation.

The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, undertook a book project on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal in 2008. The book titled “Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Seeking Synergy in Bilateralism”, edited by PR Chari has been published by Taylor and Francis India and is the first such book on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal since it was signed in 2008.

The volume is a collection of 12 articles which sketch the role played by various actors — state and individual, both national and international, in either obstructing or facilitating its finalization. It examines and analyzes the various political and technical issues relating to the deal since negotiations between the two countries began and locates these within the totality of Indo-US relations. Further, it provides an analysis of the deal from different viewpoints — domestic, international, the media, non-proliferation lobbyists, pro-deal pressure groups, its technical dimensions, and most importantly, the political dynamics of the deal, making this work a holistic study of a significant event in Indo-US bilateral relations.