One of the first actions taken by India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale soon after his appointment was to work the phone and tell the government-funded think tank Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) to call off a conference on “India and China in Asia: Making of a New Equilibrium” that would have discussed the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, possibly in a tenor that could have riled China. The IDSA conference is a signature annual event of the institution, to which scholars, academics and military practitioners from all over the world are invited. Cancelling it at the 11th