IDR Blog
Are the anti-Maoist operations fake?
It is difficult to totally avoid collateral deaths of innocent civilians in counter-insurgency operations, but it is important to take every precaution possible to reduce such deaths. …counter-insurgency operations themselves, instead of putting down the insurgency, become a root cause of more insurgency. When the security forces do not...
The nation has a right to know
1962: India suffered a humiliating set-back in the Sino-Indian war. Many believed that the set-back was attributable to the then political, military and intelligence leadership. An enquiry was held into some of the aspects of the set-back. This enquiry report has not so far been released to the Indian public. 1965-66: India suffered two...
Why India needs a survival strategy
Imperial China first gobbled up pacifist Tibet and now demands major territorial concessions from pacifist India to protect the flanks of the conquered land. With the imminent withdrawal of the exhausted Western forces from Afghanistan, the emergence of an Islamic Emirate running from Kabul to Islamabad is inevitable. The Pakistan Army will be...
Is India confused between ground and sea realities?
I found during my recent interactions in New Delhi that our strategic thinking continues to be largely enchained to ground-based perceptions and that we are unable to reach for the skies and the seas. The skies and the seas have realities of their own distinct from ground realities. Unless we are able to perceive them in due measure and make...
Threat Perception: Is it China or Pakistan or China-Pakistan combine?
For over a year now, a strategic debate has been going on in Delhi on future threat scenarios relating to State and non-State actors. Our preoccupation till now has been with the continuing threats from the State of Pakistan and from the jihadi terrorist organisations nursed by it. It has also been with China’s continuing collusion with...