Security Counsel

The world impinges on India as never before. What Delhi does,in turn,has begun to have consequences beyond the subcontinent.

The world impinges on India as never before. What Delhi does,in turn,has begun to have consequences beyond the subcontinent. Despite the growing security interdependence between India and the world,there are few overarching assessments of the challenges facing the nation either at the level of concept or policy.

The two books under review seek to fill that gap. Kapil Kaks edited volume takes the conventional approach. It brings together well-known thinkers and practitioners from M.S. Swaminathan to B. Raman,Jasjit Singh to Wajahat Habibullah,and N.S. Sisodia to Arvind Virmani to explore the full spectrum of national security challenges. Together,they parse issues ranging from such non-traditional threats as water and food security to new challenges in outer space and maritime domain. And in between there are useful analyses of such complex problems as managing defence resource,generating good governance and countering left-wing extremism.

Translating the all-embracing concept of comprehensive national security into specific policy choices,however,depends on a number of factors. None of them is more important than the dynamic external environment that provides the context for Indian decision makers.

The success of Delhis policy choices depends on how best its security planners might factor in the many uncertain elements in the global economy and the distribution of political and military power in the international system.

The doyen of Indian strategic community,K. Subrahmanyam,who contributes the introduction to Kaks volume,has long argued that our national security decision-making will be effective only if it is based on a solid analysis of alternative futures and informed judgements.

But few have risen to the task,at least outside of the government. We now have Raja Menon and Rajiv Kumar stepping boldly into that breach. Their long view offers the first public net assessment of Indias strategic environment and provides a template to think about Indias grand strategic choices on national security and foreign policy.

Net assessment,as a means to rigorously analyse the trend lines in the international environment and develop specific policy options,has been alien to Indian strategic culture. That precisely is what makes The Long View from Delhi such a stimulating and welcome intellectual effort.

Story continues below this ad

Judgements on where the world was headed and how India should respond to them in the immediate aftermath of Independence were largely left to the first prime minister,Jawaharlal Nehru. If Nehru,a keen observer of the world,made big contributions to Indias foreign and national security policy,he also made huge mistakes. Since there were no systematic analyses of the world in India,there was no way to question the bases and assumptions of Nehrus decisions.

The Indian political leadership after Nehru has been driven by instinct,political bias,bureaucratic inertia and,above all,a reactive approach to the world. Menon and Kumar show us there are better and smarter ways of thinking through our strategic environment.

Many will quibble with the premises and methodology of the The Long View,but the study well structured,superbly argued and impressively produced marks a breakthrough in Indias noisy but somewhat unimaginative security discourse.

For the first time in many centuries,India is on the verge of acquiring the necessary resources to influence its regional and international situation. The Long View will hopefully push the traditionalists of the Delhis strategic community away from their smug mantras and inspire younger scholars to emulate the rigour and analytical skills on display in the volume.