PhD thesis at SIS, JNU

India's doctrine puzzle, 2014

The book examines the impetus for doctrinal change in conventional doctrine. It deals with Limited War theory beginning with Clausewitz’s understanding of war and necessary nuclear related caveats added by Bernard Brodie followed by a review of the historical development of the Limited War concept in the US and in India. The book then deals with the doctrines in general and ’Cold Start’ in particular. It also deals with India’s regional strategic predicament in order to bring out how land warfare doctrine in particular has adapted to its regional strategic circumstance. The book discusses the political factor in terms of strategic culture at state level. It explores how organisational culture, organisational processes and bureaucratic politics account for change in doctrine. The book explores the relative validity of the three drivers of doctrinal change at the respective levels of analysis: structural, state and organisational.

International Security, 2008

In response to the perceived inability of the Indian military to leverage its conventional superiority to end Pakistan's “proxy war” in Kashmir, the Indian Army announced a new offensive doctrine in 2004 intended to allow it to mobilize quickly and undertake limited retaliatory attacks on its neighbor, without crossing Pakistan's nuclear threshold. This Cold Start doctrine marks a break with the fundamentally defensive military doctrines that India has employed since gaining independence in 1947. Requiring combined arms operating jointly with the Indian Air Force, Cold Start represents a significant advance in India's conventional military capabilities. Yet, despite the Indian Army's intentions, it risks provoking or escalating a crisis on the subcontinent that could breach the nuclear threshold. Recent military exercises and associated organizational changes indicate that although the Indian Army has made progress toward developing an operational Cold Start capabili...

Strategic restraint has served India fairly well but the application of this policy option, for reasons other than as a result of a deliberate and well-planned strategy, has also led to its being the primary obstacle to India realising its full potential and taking its rightful place amongst the community of nations.

This article examines the historical foundations of Indian foreign policy, and the principles historically formulated as the main principles of modern Indian foreign policy are of decisive importance.

Asian Affairs, 2016

This book chapter looks into India’s civil-military relations and its impact on India’s military effectiveness. It discusses the theory of civil-military relations and identifies that while Huntington’s ‘objective control’ best describes civil-military relations in India, it does not, contrary to Huntington’s claim, maximize military effectiveness. Borrowing from Risa Brook’s approach, the author analyses Indian military effectiveness by examining its four crucial determinants—weapons procurement, defence planning, integration and human resource development. He argues that the current structure of civil-military relations, more accurately described as an ‘absent dialogue’, has an adverse impact on its military effectiveness. While the Indian state has acknowledged some of these problems and has made some attempts at defence reforms, more forceful political intervention is required.

Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2020