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Note From the Editor
Full text linkIndia’s geographical breadth and reach, have ensured an extensive and extended neighborhood which has provided the policymakers with a complex range of difficulties that are almost a microcosm of the challenges confronting the global community as a whole. As a result, India’s foreign policy toward its extended neighborhood, like that of any other country must embrace the goals of improving opportunities for its citizens to maintain and enrich their life by providing them with a safe and secure environment.
Keeping this in the background, the CLAWS Journal 2022 Summer issue has selected the theme—“India’s Strategic Neighbourhood”.The phrase “strategic neighborhood” can be defined in a variety of ways. Apart from Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, nations sharing land and maritime borders with India include China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, and this goes beyond the geographical description of South Asia. Several countries outside of this list are also linked to India through close economic and diasporic ties, as well as developments perceived by Indian policymakers as having strategic implications; this category includes countries along the Indian Ocean, the East African coast, the Gulf region, Afghanistan, the Central Asian region, and countries in Southeast Asi
Non-Contact Warfare: A Strategy for Future
Full text linkExamining events after World War II shows that the emerging technological environment is shaping the future. The shift in operational doctrine from ‘massing of forces’ to ‘massing of effects’ with a quantum reduction in physical contact between adversarial forces has been scripted. Future conflict trends are likely to be diffused, diverse and disruptive. Expanding security-arena from traditional to non-traditional domains necessitates a nuanced doctrinal approach. The escalation levers are looking at non-military and military means of contestation.
 
China’s Strategic Challenges to India
Full text linkIndia and China share a complex bilateral relationship, consisting of military confrontations, diplomatic dialogues, and intense economic activities, concurrent with multilateral engagements. Their growth prospects and future visions set them on a path of intense competition. Also, China’s consistent growth to become a major player in the global arena poses many strategic challenges to India’s growth story.
The foremost challenge is that China poses a direct military threat to India, due to its rapidly modernising military forces, as well as thebloody history of India-China territorial disputes. Second, China’s burgeoning economic muscle affords it the luxury of shaping worldopinion in its favour and to India’s detriment. This factor is compounded by China’s influence on international bodies like the UN and financial institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which may impinge on India’s national interests. Coupled with this is the consistently expanding Chinese influence in South Asia, directly challenging India’s dominant position in the region.This commentary examines the challenges that India faces from China and further evaluates possible strategic options for India
India Must End Protracted Conflicts to Create a Stable Environment for Development
Full text linkIndia has been suffering from protracted internal armed conflicts in different theatres for the last nearly fifty years. Indigenous and Transnational terrorism, pose a formidable challenge to the country’s security. The separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir, aided and abetted by Pakistan, has forced India to deploy huge security forces in the state. The northeast has been having multiple insurgencies. Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura have all been affected by insurgencies at different periods of time. Nagaland continues to fester. The Maoist movement, which had engulfed large areas of central India, has since been contained to an extent, but it continues to be a major threat. Security forces have generally established their dominance, but the socio-economic dimensions of the problem still remain unresolved and needs to be addressed more comprehensively. The protracted conflicts are essentially due to flaws or lacunae in our doctrinal approach, strategic vision and tactical handling of the challenges. The country must have an internal security doctrine and the security architecture must be completely revamped.
 
Securing of Critical Infrastructure: Lessons Learned for the Indian Armed Forces from the Russia-Ukraine War
Full text linkThis commentary analyses the military operations executed by the Russian Army in Ukraine to secure Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and Azovstal Steel Plant without major damages so that these assets can be put to use subsequently. The commentary brings out the vital operational parameters required to secure such critical assets. It brings out vital lessons for the Indian Armed Forces to build capacities and to plan and prepare for such missions. It also recommends changes in doctrinal approach and training philosophy in a war scenario. Contingency planning to avoid any nuclear disaster or accident is vital for the success of such missions. The capture of ZNPP and Azovstal by the Russian Armed Forces has added a new dimension to warfare. India needs to plan and prepare for such military operations in future.
 
Strategic Contours: India and Myanmar
Full text linkIndia and Myanmar have deep historical, cultural, ethnic, and commercial links. Common geopolitical, economic, and security interestsexist that are spread across vast land and maritime frontiers. Apart from this, there is a sizeable Indian diaspora residing in Myanmarfor generations. India’s land border with Myanmar of over 1600 km, involving Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoramadjoin Kachin, Sagaing, and Chin states across. Myanmar also serves as the land bridge to South East Asia and coupled with the maritime connection in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, makes it a very important neighbor in the region’s security calculus
Managing the Imminent Obsolescence of Legacy Platforms
Full text linkLarge weapon platforms have been targeted with increasing ease, so much so, that it raises the alarming spectre of them being Left Out of Battle (LOB), in contemporary wars. They are being challenged by nimbler, easy-to-use, cheaper weapon systems. Not surprisingly fighter jets, warships, tanks and even guns are being pushed towards obsolescence. We therefore require to critically review the future of legacy platforms,especially when similar or much more lethal impact is possible with smaller and smarter systems. Military analysts are unanimous in their view—modern militaries must transition to new tools of warfighting; this will not only obviate being saddled with obsolete or near obsolete weapon platforms but importantly circumvent the pitfalls of preparing for a war of yesterday. A roadmap to effect this transition, however, requires astute planning and intricate stage manage.
 
Politics and Geopolitics: Decoding India’s Neighbourhood Challenge: Edited by Harsh V. Pant. Publisher: Rupa Books, 2021 ISBN: 978-93-90918-57-7, 240 pp.
No full textWith the change in the global geopolitical landscape, the popular discourse among scholars is that global power is shifting toward the east. This shift in global power is primarily because of China’s rise and India’s emerging economy bringing new challenges to global politics, especially in the South Asian region with ‘China rise’ as it pivots, the book ‘Politics and Geopolitics: Decoding India’s Neighbourhood Challenge,” edited by Prof. Harsh V Pant, is a timely work to analyse the changing contours of national interest in India’s neighbourhood
Getting Serious about Thermonuclear Security: Need for New Tests, Augmented Capability and First use Doctrine & Posture
Full text linkIndia has been an economic and military punching bag for China. This is India’s fault because it has done less than nothing to counter the pummeling except occasionally reacting (as on the Galwan) and then only defensively. It is time India, a nuclear laggard, adopted the strategy conventionally weak nuclear weapons states (Pakistan against India, North Korea against the US) have successfully wielded against stronger adversaries by threatening nuclear first use, and by substantiating such threat by laying down short fuse, forward nuclear tripwires. For an India that has historically quailed before China, making this new more assertive stance credible will require significant measures—resumption of thermonuclear testing, emplacing a differentiated two-tiered doctrine that replaces the impractical “massive retaliation” strategy with flexible and proportional response notions pivoting on nuclear first use but only versus China while retaining the “retaliation only” concept for everyone else, and alighting on a tiered posture supported by the buildup of ‘soft’ strategic infrastructure (a separate strategic budget, specialist nuclear officer cadres in the three services, and a mechanism for oversight of nuclear weapons designing activity). It is a doable strategy the Indian government should not shy away from.
 
India’s Strategic Gameplan vis-à-vis China-Pak Collusive Linkage
Full text linkThe basic approach of this article is to discuss an outline optimum strategy or broad game-plan to tackle collusive Sino-Pak threats. The detailed strategy and specific action plan are beyond the scope of this article. However, deliberations and inferences drawn in this article can help refine/validate template for such formulation. It will be appropriate to reiterate that clarity on threat parameters is an essential pre-requisite for planning levels of preparedness, force structures, equipment profile, modernisation and budgetary allocations, hence these are discussed in brief. Reasonable assumptions have been factored in, where necessary, as detailed national security policies are yet to be promulgated