67 results found
Exercise Sanghe Shakti, held over one week in Punjab in May 2006, was designed to test the Indian Army¿s new concept for offensive operations in the plains. This was the most recent in a series of annual exercises that have included Poorna Vijay (2001), Vijay Chakra, Divya Astra, Vajra Shakti (May 2005) and Desert Strike (November 2005), all of which were all aimed at concentrating and coordinating firepower and fine-tuning
There are two streams of debate on India’s current nuclear doctrine: one on its current interpretation and deducing its form and what such form means for India’s overall nuclear strategy; and another, more internal to India, on what should be the Indian nuclear doctrine with respect to the evolving nature of threats. The two debates are not mutually exclusive. However, neither of them have contended with all conventional contingencies, in par
The nature of nuclear threat that India faces is not "binary" as India's concerns related with Pakistan and China are intertwined. The history behind China-Pakistan nuclear collusion makes it important to look into the "interlink".
No one believes that India would wipe out Lahore, if Pakistan used a low yield nuclear weapon against an Indian military formation, and that, too, in Pakistan.
Pakistan Army recently declared adopting a new doctrine of war fighting, termed sub-conventional warfare, in its policy document, the Green Book. The book, published at regular intervals, is a manual of new doctrines and guidelines which the GHQ distributes among senior military officials.
The doctrine’s ambitious purpose, in principle, is to help provide a framework for an integrated approach to warfare by all the three branches of the Indian armed forces. However, the JDIAF makes little substantive progress toward force integration among the three services.
India has the capacity, intellect, and research facilities — within and outside of government — to develop and field systems faster than ever befo
The country has good reason to want first-strike capabilities. But the actual state of its arsenal suggests that it won’t get them.
Many strategic analysts in India have suggested that the country evolve a national security doctrine to guide its armed forces and governmental system in dealing with matters relating to national security. The Observer Research Foundation took the initiative to examine the issue in its entirety. This report details the outcome of a discussion amongst the country's noted security experts.
A nuclear doctrine states how a nuclear weapon state would employ its nuclear weapons both during peace and war.
This paper follows the proceedings of a workshop organised by ORF in August 2014 to re-examine India's nuclear doctrine. The workshop explored the challenges posed to India by Pakistan's introduction of battlefield nuclear weapons or Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs), New Delhi's interest in acquiring a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, and the growing threat perception from China.
Bill Clinton had gotten a lot of things right, here is what he got wrong.
Regardless of the stasis in India’s OND, the technological changes in India’s delivery capabilities are outpacing doctrinal change
In a perceptive essay written some years ago, Joseph Nye had observed that "national interest is a slippery concept used to describe as well as prescribe policy." Decades earlier, the philosopher Gilbert Ryle had cautioned against "systematically misleading expressions" couched in a syntactical form improper to the facts recorded.
Mr Narendra Modi's decision to invite the Head of Governments of India's neighbouring countries for his swearing-in was appreciated by Dr Sanjaya Baru, former Media Advisor of Dr Manmohan Singh. Modi's emphasis on the economy was also noted.
The historic second term of Narendra Modi’s government can serve to exacerbate the material asymmetry between India and Pakistan. For this reason an
India’s No First Use policy was a result of the lessons that India’s key strategic thinkers learned in the long decades they spent thinking about
Parrikar's statement on the changing the nuclear policy and re-calibrating it to keep up with the changing times has opened a Pandora's box.
Ajit Doval’s approach — now famously referred to as the Doval Doctrine — places limited reliance on diplomacy only to the extent that India’s territorial interests are not compromised.
The different service arms of China’s armed forces are all undergoing substantial transformation, including exploring the possibilities of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) to boost their combat power and effectiveness especially in a time of war. This paper evaluates the significance and potential of AI in improving China’s military capabilities. Chinese official documents and their enunciation of military doctrine indicate that the c
The newly revised doctrine seeks to overcome the past inadequacy in the wider knowledge and leveraging of air power in India’s national security and
There has been virtually no real discourse on Indian nuclear thinking in recent years, though there have been some declarative statements.
Little attention is paid to the dynamics of politico-military strategies and civil military discourse on military capabilities and doctrines for any future conflicts
The proactive foreign policy by Lula aims to raise Brazil’s global profile. Whether this comes to fruition is yet to be seen and it remains a diffic
During the Cold War, India navigated its external relations guided largely by the doctrine and practice of non-alignment. In these contemporary times, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to inaugurate a period of heightened geopolitical rivalries, with the United States and China as the principal poles. India will be differently positioned in this post-Covid “new normal” than it was in the era of the Cold War and therefore will need differe
Beijing's expanding footprint in this oil-rich region has set the stage for a competition with Washington
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone many changes since Xi Jinping became general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2013. Efforts at modernising the PLA have been conducted in earnest for the past 10 years through the overhaul of the organisation and the introduction of latest technologies to make it battle-ready. This paper describes these capability-related and institutional changes in China’s military, wh
The extant scholarship on India’s nuclear doctrine, while problematising the credibility deficit in the strategy of massive retaliation, fails to provide a policy alternative. This study examines the alternative of flexible response available for India and makes an assessment of whether it provides a solution to this problem in India’s nuclear doctrine. Even when flexible response is often cited in India’s strategic circles as a likely alte
If massive retaliation is retained in the nuclear doctrine, it will be not because of its efficacy as a strategy of deterrence.
Young Suryanarayana is a life that has been cut in its prime. He was the vic- tim of a bigoted doctrine taught in Pakistan for nearly three decades; for the Taliban are only another manifestation of the Islamist drive of General Zia-ul-Haq. The Indian died in a terrorist act after his abduc- tors demanded that all 2,500 Indians in Afghanistan vacate immediately. It was an absurd demand and no government would ever have agreed to it.
There is a need for governments to engage the private sector in counter-terrorism and counter-propaganda initiatives. Counter-terrorism doctrines and strategies have been framed in the last decade with a focus on religious extremism and have failed to encompass other ideas, feel cyber expers.
Even as India has had a long-running debate about many aspects of its nuclear doctrine, most importantly, its No First Use (NFU) policy, the country continues to maintain the NFU. This paper makes a critical assessment of recent arguments made by Christopher Clary and Vipin Narang that India may be reconsidering its NFU policy because of counterforce “temptations”. The paper dissects the evidence they present—statements made by mostly retir
India's diluted version of the 'No First Use' nuclear doctrine makes an already dangerous security situation in South Asia more dangerous still. Everyone would be better off if the government did away with it.The problem is that no political group currently has the wherewithal to try to fix these ambiguities.
While the Indian Army’s emphasis on integrating advanced tools reflects a proactive response to evolving challenges, a broader transformation warran
The role of legitimacy in India’s approach to the doctrine of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) and Humanitarian Interventions (HIs) has not received as much attention as it is due. The following paper evaluates India’s evolving views on R2P and HIs through the prism of legitimacy. It also demonstrates why the outcome of an HI, whether through the medium of the R2P or otherwise, matters as much as motives. Most Indian debates about R2
India needs to reassess its nuclear doctrine sooner or later, current debates notwithstanding.
It is now clear that the heft of the Prime Minister’s persona alone or the goodwill he enjoys cannot drive India’s external engagement.
The Indian Army’s (IA) difficulties with regard to the acquisition of light tanks are as much self-inflicted as they are a product of fiscal constraints. The Army has exerted only half-hearted efforts in developing its light-armoured capabilities—inconsistent with current Army doctrine and in disregard of history. Indeed, the IA has used light armour in high-altitude operations in the past. This paper argues that the IA is hobbled by an infan
The use and deployment of nuclear weapons must firmly remain in the hands of human beings and never be delegated to any technological marvel, no matte
The expected meeting has seen a focus on what both sides could agree to on the defense side.
India's newly aggressive strategy puts Gulf money and Israeli weapons first.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Israel will be historic.
One needs to be cautious in pronouncing that the recent Myanmar Operation by the Indian army is a new, all-purpose security and counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism doctrine for every eventuality, circumstance and geography. In the case of Pakistan and the Kashmir theatre, for example, things will not be as simple.
The absence of a standard formulation on the no-first-use of nuclear weapons in the latest Chinese defence white paper has raised questions about a likely evolution in Beijing's nuclear doctrine.
