This blog came about as a result of a recent article by a former colleague on the editorial page of the Times of India.
The article was on the imperatives of the development of airpower in the country in the context of the ongoing "hard-power" vs. "soft-power" debate and he bought up the topic of "smart power". He is of course, talking about a "transformation" in integrated thinking and capability development in the national security context. While I have to agree that most of the challenges lie in the task of educating our policy makers, a logical startpoint in the military security context (to get our house in order), would be the creation of a "joint services" doctrine. But with the office of the CDS hanging fire for several decades due to government apathy, bureaucratic dilettante and interservices rivalry, it will be a long while before it sees the light of day.
However that does not mean that experimentation cannot start immediately. The very rationale of having a joint services training institutions right at the very start of an officer's service career was the notion of the integrated battlefield encompassing all its ramifications. The service chiefs today have been colleagues in the academy and maintain strong relationships right through their service career. There is no reason why this long standing camaraderie cannot be channeled towards more productive avenues than the ritual annual social events that marks the passing of yet another year since the POP.
In this blog I intend to explore the content and issues related to formulating a national security strategy and thereafter explore the linkages down through military strategy to domains like threat perceptions, force levels, manpower planning, capital budgeting and higher defence organization, drawing mainly from a wealth of information from older western democracies where (at least in a relative way) such evolved thinking permeates the government and having matured over the years has now been substantially articulated in documentation available in the public domain.
The article was on the imperatives of the development of airpower in the country in the context of the ongoing "hard-power" vs. "soft-power" debate and he bought up the topic of "smart power". He is of course, talking about a "transformation" in integrated thinking and capability development in the national security context. While I have to agree that most of the challenges lie in the task of educating our policy makers, a logical startpoint in the military security context (to get our house in order), would be the creation of a "joint services" doctrine. But with the office of the CDS hanging fire for several decades due to government apathy, bureaucratic dilettante and interservices rivalry, it will be a long while before it sees the light of day.
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| The Tri-Services National Defence Academy |
However that does not mean that experimentation cannot start immediately. The very rationale of having a joint services training institutions right at the very start of an officer's service career was the notion of the integrated battlefield encompassing all its ramifications. The service chiefs today have been colleagues in the academy and maintain strong relationships right through their service career. There is no reason why this long standing camaraderie cannot be channeled towards more productive avenues than the ritual annual social events that marks the passing of yet another year since the POP.
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| Service Chiefs at the Republic Day function in 2012 |
In this blog I intend to explore the content and issues related to formulating a national security strategy and thereafter explore the linkages down through military strategy to domains like threat perceptions, force levels, manpower planning, capital budgeting and higher defence organization, drawing mainly from a wealth of information from older western democracies where (at least in a relative way) such evolved thinking permeates the government and having matured over the years has now been substantially articulated in documentation available in the public domain.
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