Welcome and Inaugural Keynote Address

09:00 – 09:50 AM: Border Communities, Cross-Border Kinship and Act East: Making Connectivity an Instrument of Security and Development

Context

The India–Myanmar border in Nagaland is not merely an international boundary; it intersects with longstanding ethnic, familial, cultural and economic relationships among Naga communities living across both sides. This creates a distinctive border-management challenge in which national security requirements, regulated mobility and territorial administration must coexist with traditional patterns of kinship and community interaction. Changes in Myanmar's security environment and India's approach towards border regulation have further intensified the need to reconcile legitimate security concerns with the social realities of border communities.

At the same time, Nagaland's location provides an important opportunity to connect border security with India's Act East Policy, regional connectivity and local economic development. Community-responsive infrastructure, regulated mobility, legitimate border trade, tourism and livelihood creation can help transform connectivity into an instrument of stability rather than vulnerability. The challenge is therefore to develop a model of border governance that strengthens state capacity and security while preserving legitimate cultural relationships, expanding economic opportunity and securing greater community participation in the policies that directly affect border populations.

Guiding questions

• How can India strengthen security and regulate movement along the India–Myanmar border without unnecessarily disrupting longstanding Naga kinship, cultural and social relationships across the boundary?

• How can cross-border cultural and community linkages be transformed from a perceived security vulnerability into an asset for diplomacy, development, stability and India's Act East Policy?

• What combination of connectivity, legitimate border trade, tourism and livelihood opportunities can provide border communities with stronger economic incentives for supporting secure and regulated borders?

• How can border communities, customary institutions and local civil society be more meaningfully incorporated into the design and implementation of border-management and connectivity policies to improve trust, legitimacy and effectiveness?

Speaker

• Dr. Monalisa Tase
  Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
  Nagaland University 

10:00 – 10:50 AM: Disaster Resilience in Nagaland: Strengthening Preparedness, Response and Recovery for a Secure Future

Context

Nagaland’s mountainous terrain, fragile slopes, high rainfall and dispersed settlements create a complex disaster-risk environment shaped by landslides, flash floods, earthquakes, extreme weather, forest fires and infrastructure vulnerabilities. Rapid urbanisation, construction in environmentally sensitive areas, changing land-use patterns and climate-related stresses can further amplify these risks. Disasters can disrupt critical roads and communications, isolate remote communities, damage essential services and strain administrative and security capacities, making disaster resilience an important component of the State’s wider human and internal security architecture.

Building resilience therefore requires moving from primarily response-oriented disaster management towards a risk-informed system of prevention, preparedness, early warning, coordinated response and resilient recovery. This calls for stronger coordination among the State Government, Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority, district administrations, police and emergency services, security forces, health institutions, local bodies, Village Councils, community organisations and volunteers. Combining technology and reliable communications with community knowledge, local response capacity, resilient infrastructure and regular preparedness exercises can help Nagaland develop a whole-of-society model capable of protecting lives while ensuring continuity of governance and essential services during major emergencies.

Guiding questions

• What are the most significant emerging disaster and climate-related risks facing Nagaland, and where are the critical gaps in the State’s preparedness and response architecture?

• How can early-warning systems, technology, risk mapping, resilient communications and better infrastructure planning strengthen preparedness, particularly in remote and difficult-to-access areas?

• How can coordination among disaster-management authorities, district administrations, police, security forces, health services and other agencies be strengthened to ensure a rapid and unified response during major emergencies?

• How can Village Councils, customary institutions, civil society, youth and local communities be integrated into preparedness, first response and recovery to build a genuinely community-centred model of disaster resilience?

Speaker

• Col K.C. Monnappa (Retd)
  Director, Disaster Management Division
  Centre for Internal Security Analysis

11:00 – 11:50 PM: Counter-Terrorism and Conflict-Recurrence Prevention in Nagaland

Context

Nagaland has undergone a significant security transition from decades of armed insurgency and violent political contestation towards sustained ceasefires, political dialogue and a substantially reduced level of insurgent violence. The 1997 ceasefire with the NSCN(IM), followed by the 2015 Framework Agreement and the 2017 Agreed Position with the Working Committee of the Naga National Political Groups, created an important architecture for negotiations and helped move the State away from large-scale armed confrontation. Yet the absence of a comprehensive final political settlement, continued factionalism, residual armed networks, extortion and coercive financing, illicit arms and narcotics flows, and the persistence of cross-border linkages mean that peace must be continuously consolidated rather than assumed to be irreversible.

The contemporary counter-terrorism challenge in Nagaland is therefore increasingly one of preventing conflict recurrence. Security institutions must detect and disrupt attempts to reactivate cadre networks, financing structures, recruitment channels, illicit logistics and cross-border support systems before they regenerate into organised violence. This requires moving beyond conventional counter-insurgency towards an intelligence-led and whole-of-government prevention framework integrating political dialogue, ceasefire enforcement, counter-terror finance, counter-narcotics action, border management, organised-crime disruption, rehabilitation and reintegration, community-based early warning and responsive governance. The strategic objective must be to ensure that residual networks cannot exploit unresolved grievances, regional instability or criminal economies to undermine the considerable peace gains achieved in Nagaland.

Guiding questions

• How has the counter-terrorism environment in Nagaland evolved from conventional armed insurgency towards residual networks, factionalism, criminal financing and conflict-recurrence risks?

• What political, security, economic and regional developments could enable dormant cadres, militant factions or support networks to reorganise and return to violence?

• How can intelligence agencies, Nagaland Police, Assam Rifles, CAPFs, counter-narcotics and financial-enforcement agencies develop a stronger real-time framework for identifying and disrupting recruitment, extortion, terror financing, narcotics trafficking, arms movement and cross-border facilitation?

• What combination of political dialogue, ceasefire enforcement, rehabilitation, livelihood support, border governance, community participation and intelligence-led preventive action is required to make peace in Nagaland durable and prevent the re-emergence of organised insurgency?

Speaker

• Shri Ankit Tewari
  Director, Counter Terrorism Division
  Centre for Internal Security Analysis

12:00 – 12:50 PM: From Peace to Prosperity: Border Connectivity, Development Cooperation and Global South Partnerships for Nagaland's Future

Context

Nagaland's transition from prolonged insurgency towards relative peace creates an opportunity to convert the peace dividend into sustained economic and social transformation. Its location along the India–Myanmar frontier gives the State particular significance within India's Act East Policy, where connectivity, legitimate border trade, infrastructure and regional economic integration can complement traditional security approaches. Expanding lawful economic opportunities in frontier areas can strengthen livelihoods and state presence while reducing vulnerabilities that organised crime, illicit economies and residual conflict networks can exploit.

The next phase of Nagaland's development can also draw upon India's wider experience of development cooperation and South-South knowledge sharing. Localising the Sustainable Development Goals, strengthening institutional and community capacities, and adapting successful development solutions from across the Global South can help build resilient frontier economies suited to Nagaland's distinctive social and geographic conditions. In this context, DAKSHIN – Global South Centre of Excellence's emphasis on human-centric development, knowledge sharing and scalable solutions provides a useful framework for exploring how peace, connectivity and international development cooperation can reinforce one another.

Guiding questions

• How can Nagaland convert the dividends of peace into employment, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, human development and sustainable economic opportunities, particularly for youth and border communities?

• How can India's Act East Policy, India–Myanmar connectivity and legitimate border trade be leveraged as instruments of development and stabilisation while reducing dependence on illicit and organised-crime economies?

• How can the Sustainable Development Goals be effectively localised for Nagaland's frontier and rural communities, taking into account the State's geography, customary institutions and distinctive development requirements?

• How can South-South cooperation and platforms such as DAKSHIN facilitate knowledge sharing, capacity building and scalable development solutions that help Nagaland build resilient, inclusive and human-centric border economies?

Speaker

• Dr. Rajan Suresh Ratna
  Coordinator
  DAKSHIN – Global South Centre of Excellence
  Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
  New Delhi

13:00 – 13:50 PM: Rethinking the India–Myanmar Border in Manipur: Security, Communities and Inclusive Border Governance

Context

The 1,643-kilometre India–Myanmar border is both an international boundary and a complex social landscape shaped by longstanding ethnic, familial, cultural and economic relationships that predate the modern border. In Manipur, communities on either side remain connected through kinship and traditional patterns of mobility, even as the frontier faces serious challenges arising from instability in Myanmar, irregular migration, narcotics and arms trafficking, insurgent movement and organised criminal networks. The Government of India's decision in 2024 to end the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and proceed with border fencing reflected these evolving security concerns, while also generating an important debate about how national security measures interact with the everyday realities of borderland communities.

The challenge, therefore, is to develop a model of inclusive border governance that does not frame security and community interests as competing objectives. A more responsive approach could recognise border communities as stakeholders and potential partners in securing the frontier, while strengthening documentation, regulated mobility, surveillance, lawful trade and institutional coordination. With geopolitical instability in India's eastern neighbourhood increasing cross-border pressures, Manipur provides an important setting for rethinking how India can simultaneously protect territorial security, disrupt illicit networks, preserve legitimate social relationships and build greater trust between the State and communities inhabiting its frontier.

Guiding questions

• How can India reconcile the imperatives of border fencing, regulated mobility and national security with the longstanding kinship, cultural and livelihood relationships of communities across the India–Myanmar border?

• What institutional and policy mechanisms can meaningfully incorporate border communities into border management, transforming them from passive subjects of security policy into partners in early warning, lawful mobility and frontier governance?

• How should India's border-management framework respond to the changing security environment in Myanmar, including population movements, organised crime, narcotics and arms trafficking, without treating legitimate cross-border community relationships primarily through a security lens?

• What could a new model of inclusive border governance for Manipur look like—one that combines technology, physical infrastructure and inter-agency coordination with community participation, legitimate economic opportunities and public trust?

Speaker

• Dr. Pfokrelo Kapesa
  Assistant Professor
  Department of Political Science
  University of Allahabad