Articles By Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee
Internal Cohesion: Key to Military Prowess
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 38.2, Apr-Jun 2023 | Date: 14 Jul , 2023
“What perturbs me greatly is the fact that not only India has once before lost her independence, but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people.” – Debate in...
India’s Expanded Ambit of Defence Preparedness
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 37.3, Jul-Sep 2022 | Date: 22 Oct , 2022
The Cause of National Sovereignty Traditionally, India has sought to preserve her sovereignty and territorial integrity through reliance on political accommodations and harmonious diplomacy. Even...
What Would the Chinaman Do?
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 18 Dec , 2021
“Right, as the world goes is only in question between equals in power; while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” – Melian Dialogue Chinaman’s Googly! In...
Orientations of National Defence - II
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 34.4 Oct-Dec 2019 | Date: 29 Jan , 2020
“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars” — Latin Proverb Hard Realities of Military Orientation India’s strategically envisioned community is conscious of the fact that the...
Disorientations of National Defence – I
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 34.3 Jul-Sep 2019 | Date: 28 Jan , 2020
“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” — Norman Cousins Key Neighbours: Innately Animus Inter-state and regional level political, economic and hegemonic rivalries have ever...
China’s new Constellation in Asia-Pacific: India’s Bind
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 34.2 Apr-Jun 2019 | Date: 10 Aug , 2019
“Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed” — Henry Miller China’s Quest The People’s Republic of China (PRC) identifies its primary interest with the perpetuation of the...
Awakening to National Defence: Hope at Last?
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 33.3 Jul-Sep 2018 | Date: 17 Nov , 2018
Clausewitz had prophesized that it was mandatory for a nation’s political leadership to possess a fair understanding of the profession of arms. For the military institution to deliver...
Balancing Politics and Power: Prognosis of China’s Military Build-Up
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 32.3 Jul-Sep 2017 | Date: 29 Oct , 2017
So far we have attributed the PRC’s military build-up to its likelihood of turning into a regional tormentor. Indeed, it is wise to be circumspect. Besides, in the entire pan Asian region,...
Now Doklam: Renounce of the Eternal ‘Wisdom of China’
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 21 Aug , 2017
The Hoary and Sublime‘Wisdom of China’ Scholars and strategists across the globe have always wondered at the excellence of China’s hoary strategic Wisdom. This is a Wisdom which is derived...
Now is the time to undo Kashmir Blunder
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 22 Apr , 2017
“If you do not have a strategy, you’re part of someone else’s strategy” – Alvin Toffler There are individuals and groups of socio-political inclinations in many parts of the country who...
Government’s New Defence Initiative: Committee of Experts
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 31.4 Oct-Dec 2016 | Date: 19 Jan , 2017
In convening the Review, the MoD has treaded a path of wisdom and it needs to be congratulated on this initiative. But to ensure that the path is not lost to wilderness, it needs to be considered...
One Wonders: It Happens Only in India !!
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 05 Nov , 2016
It is said that morale makes a soldier, sailor and airman victorious against extreme and unforgiving odds. Therefore it comes as a surprise that while the Indian state finds Pakistan as an enemy...
The Government’s Burden of Military Security
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 31.2 Apr-Jun 2016 | Date: 31 Jul , 2016
It needs no revelation that there is widespread consternation within the strategically committed community, the intelligentsia and the media over the growing obsolescence and declining...
Nurturing Military Institutions: For the Good of the Nation
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 31.1 Jan-Mar 2016 | Date: 02 May , 2016
Over the following decades, while the nation’s military capability went through cycles of rise and fall depending upon the degree of the Government’s geo-strategic naivety, denigration of the...
Counter-Point: Has India no Strategic Culture!
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 30 Nov , 2015
“Don’t hit at all if it is honourably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft”. – Theodore Roosevelt Burden of Strategic Thinking India’s strategic community has always been cold...
China’s Game of Territorial Claims
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 30.3 Jul-Sep 2015 | Date: 12 Oct , 2015
There is no hope of a resolution of the India-PRC border dispute unless it is grossly in favour of China. It would, therefore, be wise for India to learn to live with the problem – as indeed...
The bureaucracy eternal ...
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 08 Sep , 2015
“Sadly, the society is not usually ruled by great men, but small ones whom circumstances have brought into positions of power”. (Purpose of the following muse is not to defend bureaucracy...
Think Over .... , Think-Tanks!
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Date: 02 Sep , 2015
“The only thing harder than getting new things into the military mind is to get the old ones out”, – Liddel Hart Focus of Thinking The number of ‘think-tanks’ dedicated to the...
Call for a Native Indian Military Doctrine
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 30.2 Apr-Jun 2015 | Date: 31 Aug , 2015
It is historically recognised that the conduct of war has much to do with intellect, creativity and initiative. From this angle, it is imperative to devote attention towards the conceptual...
The Himalayan Sentinel and a Strike Corps
By: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee | Issue: Vol. 29.3 Jul-Sep 2014 | Date: 02 Feb , 2015
The Indian Army remains handicapped in terms of its war making potential and lack of military infrastructure along the ever-vulnerable Indo-Tibet Border. The military men’s cause was first...