Military diplomacy remains a vastly untapped constituent of India’s Comprehensive National Power and needs a holistic push for the attainment of national objectives
The recent events in neighbouring Bangladesh, leading to the sudden ouster of four times Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, caught the world by surprise. The fact that a student’s protest against reservation in governmental jobs for the children of the nation’s freedom fighters would assume such violent and communal proportions was shockingly unpredictable. India’s surprise over these events cannot be over-emphasised. Did this take place due to the lack of intelligence in reading the political situation in the neighbourhood or was it a failure of India’s diplomacy in not being able to influence events in a friendly country? Sheikh Hasina’s hasty departure also resulted in gross mindless violence against the Hindu community in Bangladesh and large-scale vandalism against Hindu temples. Had India supplemented the nation’s diplomatic efforts with military diplomacy with the friendly Bangladesh Army, we may have been able to influence, even if marginally, the Bangladesh Army in controlling anti-Hasina and anti-India activities. Since our independence, unlike many emerging powers, India has not fully employed the art of military diplomacy. Down the decades, successive Indian political leadership and largely our bureaucrats have kept its armed forces away from such pursuits.
Diplomacy is the employment and conduct of international relations, bilateral or multilateral, by peaceful engagement and efforts to establish cordial relations between negotiating nations.
On the face of it, military and diplomacy belong to distinctly different realms. Diplomacy is the employment and conduct of international relations, bilateral or multilateral, by peaceful engagement and efforts to establish cordial relations between negotiating nations. If diplomacy fails, subsequent actions may result in efforts to settle matters by the use of force. On the face of it, military diplomacy, like the term military intelligence, may appear to be an oxymoron. Although there is no standard definition of the term ‘military diplomacy’, it connotes the peaceful, non-kinetic employment of military capabilities and military resources in the pursuit of national foreign policy objectives. Noted Strategic Analyst Anton Du Plessis, summarises military diplomacy as “the use of Armed Forces in operations other war, building on their trained expertise and discipline to achieve national and foreign objectives abroad.” However, it is also pertinent to note that powerful nations also, if the need arises, display their coercive powers by threatening to use force. This was known as ‘gun-boat diplomacy’—a term which was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Overall, military diplomacy enhances defence cooperation and promotes cordial relations between nations; it is an extension of a nation’s soft power. The Indian Navy’s efforts in freeing the hostages of other nations from the clutches of Somalian and Houthi pirates, operating in the West Asian waterways, is a good example of effective military diplomacy. Military interventions by India such as the operation in the Maldives in 1988 (Operation Cactus) or dispatching the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka, on the latter’s request, do not fall under the purview of military diplomacy. India’s frequent forays in numerous UN Peacekeeping Missions across the globe since the mid-1950s can be categorised as part of its military diplomacy endeavours.
The Indian Navy’s efforts in freeing the hostages of other nations from the clutches of Somalian and Houthi pirates, operating in the West Asian waterways, is a good example of effective military diplomacy.
In today’s strife-torn world, beset by unforeseen transformational geopolitical challenges, a nation’s security preparedness has to be of a high order. This imperative is primarily based on the strengthening of its Comprehensive National Power (CNP). CNP is a collective and judicious amalgamation of a nation’s economic strength, military power, and inter-societal harmony which ensures domestic political stability, availability of natural resources, standards of education and high technology, population and demographic dividends, availability and progress in infrastructural architecture, availability of adequate medical resources and, importantly, the respect it enjoys in the comity of nations where its diplomacy is seen as altruistic and fair.
Military diplomacy aims at achieving national security and foreign policy objectives as part of the overall national strategy. Over the last couple of decades or so, military diplomacy has improved in its scope and content in India but for an emerging global power like India, greater efforts are required. Dr Marc Faber, the well-known author of the best-seller, ‘Gloom, Boom and Doom’ had also opined some years ago that “ India continues to be ambivalent about power and it has failed to develop a strategic agenda commensurate with its growing economic capabilities. Throughout history, India has failed to master the creation, deployment, and uses of its military instruments in support of national objectives.”
Over the last couple of decades or so, military diplomacy has improved in its scope and content in India but for an emerging global power like India, greater efforts are required.
Military diplomacy does not replace the country’s foreign or security policies but supplements them to obtain greater and diverse dividends for the nation. It works to enhance better cooperation including in matters of defence with nations, resulting in the overall development of economic ties and mutual confidence-building. Better cooperation with technologically advanced countries leads to access to hi-tech, state-of-the-art weaponry and ultra-modern platforms. Intelligence cooperation with friendly foreign countries and timely sharing of vital intelligence inputs could prevent catastrophic damage to a nation’s interest including cooperation in counter-terrorist operations. In addition, cooperation in non-traditional security areas which leads to better and speedier disaster management response, anti-piracy standard operating procedures (SOPs), anti-pandemic endeavours, and mass evacuations of own personnel, if the need arises, are all part of military diplomacy.
India, under its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, followed a pacifist, non-aligned orientation in its foreign policies—a policy emulated in varying degrees by successive governments. Former Army Chief, Gen Ved Malik, has succinctly summarised India’s tryst with military diplomacy stating that “ India started poorly in making use of military diplomacy as a national security and foreign policy tool. Nehruvian India was distrustful of the armed forces and kept them out of the Ministry of Defence and important decision-making.” However, Nehru with his worldview and a global vision did chair the UN Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission in 1953 and sent a big contingent and a field ambulance to South Korea. He also encouraged sending some troops on UN missions to troubled areas abroad—a practice which is continuing to date in greater numbers and accords India much respect globally.
With its establishment in March 2002, India’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) manages India’s DAs and MAs posted abroad and coordinates with the DAs and MAs from foreign nations posted in New Delhi.
During the past decades, India has opened up its military training institutions to many Western and Afro-Asian nations, a step much appreciated across the world. India has around 52 military/defence attaches (MA/DA) abroad and hosts around 102 from foreign nations in New Delhi. All these appointments contribute substantially to better relationships even beyond the realm of defence between India and foreign nations.
With its establishment in March 2002, India’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) manages India’s DAs and MAs posted abroad and coordinates with the DAs and MAs from foreign nations posted in New Delhi. It must be given extra powers and resources to substantially augment India’s military diplomacy endeavours, both at home and abroad, greatly serving the nation’s strategic interests. Military diplomacy yet remains a vastly untapped constituent of India’s CNP and thus needs a holistic and solid push for the attainment of national objectives.
Lt Gen Kamal Davar was the first Chief of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency and is a noted strategic analyst.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Lt Gen Kamal Davar was the first Chief of Indias Defence Intelligence Agency and is a noted strategic analyst.
Read More +
PREV
