Articles By Col Anil Athale
Time and Opportunity for Radical Rethink on Defence!
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Jun , 2019
It has been a long standing demand/suggestion of many military thinkers like late Lt. General Eric A. Vas and Maj. Gen. Keshav Pendse, that defence and security issues should be part of the...
Understanding the Riddle of Indian Defence Dependency
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 Jun , 2019
Part-1 As the first IDSA military history research fellow, I was engaged in studying the Anglo-Maratha wars of 18th and early 19th century. During my research I came across a very interesting...
Looming Shadow of Afghanistan over Kashmir
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 13 Feb , 2019
Kashmir has always had a rather unfortunate linkage with Afghanistan. The brief Afghan rule over valley from 1750 to 1819 is universally regarded as ‘dark age’ by the Kashmiris. In that year...
Lessons not learnt from 26/11
By: Col Anil Athale | Date: 03 Dec , 2018
The 26 November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai was India’s own 9/11. Immediately in the aftermath of the attack several measures were taken to identify and rectify the mistakes of that fateful...
Crossing the Rubicon in Kashmir
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 27 Oct , 2018
As someone who has been involved in study of Kashmir problem since 1991, I was intrigued by the recent media talk of situation having gone back to 1990s. To find out the truth I spent a week in...
Bharat Ratna Vajpayee: An Assessment
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 17 Aug , 2018
On 25 December 2014, the govt. announced the award of nation’s highest civil honour of Bharat Ratna to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is an honour that should have come to him much earlier, the...
Social Media: emerging threat to internal security
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Aug , 2018
In the insurgency hit Kashmir valley, spread of social media and cell phones has created the phenomenon of ‘flash crowds’ at the site of encounters. In addition media like face book and you...
Pakistan: Is the leopard changing its spots?
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 30 Jul , 2018
The July 25 elections in Pakistan has led to a change in the government with Mr. Imran Khan, a playboy cricketer, emerging victorious with more than little help from the ‘deep state’. Mr....
Helsinki Summit: Global and Regional Implications
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 20 Jul , 2018
Indians should be pleased with the outcome of the Helsinki summit between Russia and the US as that resolves some of the major security dilemma faced by India. The problem was that while we wish...
The Art of Strategic Messaging and Video of Surgical Strike
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 03 Jul , 2018
Government’s release of the video of November 2016 surgical strike has generated lot of political heat, with the current opposition accusing the government of the day of taking credit for army...
Kashmir : From Azadi to Nizam-e-Mustafa
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Jun , 2018
Recently a report by J&K police regarding militancy makes an interesting read. The report traces the life cycle of a local militant in four stages. The first stage is where the youngster feels...
Wuhan Summit: An attempt to overcome the past
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 05 May , 2018
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the...
Internal Peace: Understanding the Structural Issues
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 09 Apr , 2018
Increasingly, as the country becomes more powerful, external threats reduce in intensity, but the army finds itself engaged in restoring internal peace. This becomes of even greater importance...
US & Pakistan: Severing the Umbilical Cord?
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 02 Apr , 2018
One comes across frequent reports of American frustration with Pakistan and many in India wistfully hope that a break in relations between the two is round the corner. Inevitably, these Indians...
Sri Lanka Battlefields Revisited
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 25 Mar , 2018
As I enplaned Colombo on 28 February 2018 to return to India after spending a fortnight old memories returned! This was this author’s fourth trip to the island nation. One was lucky this time...
Understanding Pakistan’s Strategic Calculus!
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 27 Nov , 2017
The first essential step of national security policy is to understand the basis and substance of the likely adversary’s aims and objectives. History offers vital clues on the same. Without much...
Rise of China: An Enigma
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 17 Oct , 2017
Arnold J. Toynbee, a doyen of historian, in his multi volume magnum opus ‘Studies in World History’ had predicted rise of China and India and the challenge it will pose to the West dominated...
To ‘Act East’, Act in the North East India First!
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 28 Sep , 2017
As China rises and acts aggressively on our Northern borders laying claim to the whole of state of Arunachal Pradesh, establishing contact and strengthening our ancient ties with South East Asia...
David versus goliath myth on insurgency
By: Col Anil Athale | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 28 Aug , 2017
A military historian and author of “Quest for Peace: Comparative Studies in Counterinsurgencies”. In the 20th century insurgencies were a major issue of world politics. The decade of 1960s and...
A View from Washington
By: Col Anil Athale | Date: 19 Aug , 2017
Last month I found myself, again, interacting with the various think tanks in Washington DC. This has been a tradition with me going back 26 years to 1991. Since then, this was my 8th visit to...