Center for International Security and Cooperation
In March 2010 I was accepted into the 2010-2011 undergraduate honors program at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. The CISAC honors program consists of a dozen students, a pair of faculty advisers, a teaching assistant and a slew of visiting scholars and speakers. Each student produces a senior honors thesis, which CISAC publishes.
You can find my thesis, India's Red Stain: Explaining the Indian Government's Ineffective Response to the Maoist-Naxalite Insurgency Since 1967, below. (You will need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, otherwise it may not appear.)
Commentary by Dr. Martha Crenshaw, adviser:
Devin Banerjee's thesis provides a compelling critical account of the growth of the Naxalite insurgency in India over the past forty years and the persistent failure of the Indian government to develop an effective response. Devin demonstrates convincingly that a key impediment to ending violence is the dysfunctional relationship between the central government and the individual states in matters of national security. He also points to the changing nature of the threat as it spread across India, the government's inability to recognize or appreciate the causes of violence, and the lack of a sense of urgency at the highest levels of government. The result has been a tragic mismatch between challenge and response -- probably 15,000 deaths have resulted. Devin's astute and nuanced analysis, presented with clarity, objectivity, and scrupulous regard for the facts, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of both the dynamics of revolutionary movements in democracies and the reasons for the intractability of such conflicts.
You can find my thesis, India's Red Stain: Explaining the Indian Government's Ineffective Response to the Maoist-Naxalite Insurgency Since 1967, below. (You will need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, otherwise it may not appear.)
Commentary by Dr. Martha Crenshaw, adviser:
Devin Banerjee's thesis provides a compelling critical account of the growth of the Naxalite insurgency in India over the past forty years and the persistent failure of the Indian government to develop an effective response. Devin demonstrates convincingly that a key impediment to ending violence is the dysfunctional relationship between the central government and the individual states in matters of national security. He also points to the changing nature of the threat as it spread across India, the government's inability to recognize or appreciate the causes of violence, and the lack of a sense of urgency at the highest levels of government. The result has been a tragic mismatch between challenge and response -- probably 15,000 deaths have resulted. Devin's astute and nuanced analysis, presented with clarity, objectivity, and scrupulous regard for the facts, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of both the dynamics of revolutionary movements in democracies and the reasons for the intractability of such conflicts.
Stanford, USA: Center for International Security and Cooperation, 2011.
For a downloadable copy, please contact me directly.
For a downloadable copy, please contact me directly.
The 2010-2011 CISAC honors group in Washington, D.C., September 2010. Today this group includes two Rhodes scholars, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. Photo by Michael Sulmeyer.
