Anecdotal understanding of the Afghan attitude is misleading.
Tom Ricks, in an interview with Fareed Zakaria:
Even when I lived there, it seemed to me that guerrilla warfare was the Afghan national sport.
One of my favorite books on this region is by John Masters. It’s called “Bugles and a Tiger.” It’s a memoir of being a British [...]
Let us stop this jamboree of a Republic Day Parade.
Even if there is no fog on this 26th January, Delhi will still come to a standstill. Blame it on the Republic Day celebrations. As this news report suggests, the state seems to be taking a kind of perverse pride in converting the national capital [...]
Two examples.
This thought from the must-follow blog, Kings of War would have a few parallels in all armies of the world. First, the thought:
So often, the Army’s emphasis is on action over reflection, understandable for an organization that gets things done, but with a dangerous corollary. As a personal example, during my cadet years, I [...]
There is little research on the contribution of the Indian armed forces to the Indian independence movement.
People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half. ~Jane Haddam
Even though the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946 has earned a footnote in the history of India’s independence movement, [...]
A must read monograph tracking India’s defence relations with the world.
From the brilliant monograph at the Strategic Studies Institute of US Army War College titled India’s Strategic Defense Transformation: Expanding Global Relationships by Lieutenant Colonel Brian Hedrick of US army:
India’s interests have changed over the past decade or more, taking it from a position of [...]
Tactically brilliant doesn’t always evolve into brilliant strategic military leadership.
From Abu Muqawama’s brilliant interview with author Greg Jaffe:
Petraeus is a very effective strategic leader. What bugs me is the narrative that he was somehow birthed atop Mount Olympus as the brilliant four star who saved the Army. In reality, his career is a bizarre departure [...]
Even if there is no connectivity gap, a cultural gap between the civil and military leadership can lead to strategic and political failures.
When Mrs. Indira Gandhi completely trusted the then army chief, Sam Manekshaw in 1971 and went solely with his advise, it led to creation of Bangladesh and her being hailed as Durga. When [...]
It must be around the same time that the RIN mutiny, which the British refused to call a strike, would have been rechristened as the Naval Uprising. As far as the felicitation of the mutineers goes, Madan Singh and B.C. Dutt have each had ships named after them by the Indian Navy, nearly 52 years after the incident. In 2002, Indian Navy also unveiled a memorial in the honour of these mutineers, which stands in the busy Colaba area of Central Mumbai.
Precedent of employing armed forces against the Naxals or the Mizos is not a good enough reason to employ them again now.
As far as the anti-Maoist operations are concerned, among the three essential component of any security strategy: ends, ways and means — the first one has been taken care of by a clear [...]
Simply recounting a fact.
Here is the number of Indian Army officers that were sacked during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, within a period of two weeks.
26 Lieutenant Colonels in command of troops
10 Brigadiers out of 24 in the battle zone
3 Major Generals in the battle zone
[India's Wars Since Independence, General Trends, Vol. 3]
Both direct and indirect approaches will produce success.
Pure military skill is not enough. A full spectrum of military, para-military, and civil action must be blended to produce success. The enemy uses economic and political warfare, propaganda and naked military aggression in an endless combination to oppose a free choice of government, and suppress the rights [...]
An important debate on national security.
In a guest post few days back, BeeCee had sought to reconsider the necessity of a Chief of Defence Staff[CDS] for Indian defence services. Now, Anil Kumar makes a case for the defence minister to push for appointment of the CDS [LT: The Acorn]. His arguments:
The demands of interoperability can [...]
From Narayanmurthy’s book.
In his forthcoming book, NR Narayanmurthy tries to solve the Indian development puzzle through three seminal pieces of work: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber; My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi; and Peau Noire, Masques Blancs (Black Skin, White Masks) by Franz Fanon. It is the third [...]
CIC turns down appeal to make Henderson Brooks report public.
The Chief Information Commissioner has turned down the appeal of former MP and well-known journalist, Kuldip Nayar asking the government to declassify the Henderson Brooks Report, an army enquiry into the 1962 debacle.
“We have examined the report specifically in terms of its bearing on present national [...]
Military tradition of our own, not shame and senseless imitation of colonial masters.
[These are extracts from an article penned by Lieutenant General (retired) SK Sinha in the 1960s for the USI journal. The complete piece, along with ensuing correspondence between British and Indian officers, is also available in his book -- Of Matters Military, Vision [...]
Move away from caste based regiments and units in a modern, democratic India.
Religion, communalism and secularism in the armed forces have been debated vigorously in the recent months, following the arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Purohit in connection with the Malegaon blasts. What about the other pernicious evil that engulfs our polity and society today — [...]
Musharraf or Kayani?
The Acorn reminds everyone as to how a militarist Japan was fixed by General Douglas MacArthur after the Second World War. If the same prescription is applied to Pakistan now, then who will be Pakistan’s Hideki Tojo — Musharraf or Kayani?
Indian defence archives need to be opened up for an informed appraisal of our recent past.
Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government. ~Jeremy Bentham
Claudi Arpi and Subroto Roy ask these questions about the Indian state’s predilection for keeping the military history since independence under wraps.
In Parliament [...]
Only two parties seem to be keen on an aggressive Indian military response. One is of course the Pakistani army, which triggered it all for this very purpose. The other one, surprisingly, is a section of the Indian media.
For these people, a sobering anecdotal thought about the men and women who go to war comes [...]
…that afflicts the Indian defence services.
Decisions without Actions are Pointless. Actions without Decisions are Reckless. ~Colonel John Boyd
Harsh Pant had hinted about the dissonance between the Indian strategic aims, military doctrine and the need for acquiring modern military hardware. Now former Navy Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash, while absolving his own service of any such mistakes, [...]
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