New Delhi, February 14, 2012: If India’s transformation is our criterion, “energy security must have one of the highest priorities among the many non-traditional challenges on our agenda”, it was stated in the speech of Shri Shivshankar Menon, National Security Adviser, India, that was read out on his behalf, on the second day of the 14th Asian Security Conference at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on Tuesday.
Mr Menon said that India should rank and deal with its non traditional security challenges by examining how they could affect our ability to transform India. Looking at these challenges this way could streamline India’s strengths in “asymmetrical domains – cyber, nuclear and space - which require not just capabilities, but also imagination in doctrine and uses of those capabilities,” he added, reiterating at he same time that traditional and hard security should not be under estimated.
Mr Menon defined non-traditional security issues as “those that require a mixed application of hard and soft power, where solutions are not so clear as victory and defeat and where problems mutate into more benign forms.”
He added that Energy, water and natural disasters are today regarded as security issues primarily for two reasons. “Our ability as societies to withstand, mitigate and adapt to the challenges of water scarcity and natural disasters sometimes appear less than before. Secondly their consequences for our lives and societies are far greater, given our increasing dependence on complex systems in our economic, social and political lives.”
Chairing the Energy session, Professor Girjesh Pant reflected that economic sacrifices are necessary to ensure energy security; and there is a need to bring back the consumption question in the debate. The speakers in the session were Yiorghos Leventis - Director of the International Security Forum think tank; Zhao Hongtu - Associate Research Professor and Deputy Director in Institute of World Economic Studies, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR); Samir Pradhan - senior consultant, macroeconomics research at a leading consultancy in Qatar; Vivek Mathur - associate at ESAI Energy LLC, an energy consulting firm based outside Boston, USA; and Amitav Mallik- former research scientist in the Ministry of Defence.
Another Session on Trans-national Crime highlighted the phenomenon of transnational crime and discussed possible strategies to counter it. The speakers were of the view that a transnational problem requires a transnational response. Also, the nexus between terrorists and criminal networks was discussed at length. Molly Charles, in her address offered a critique of international drug control laws and emphasized that we need to look beyond the paradigm of security to solve our problems. Other speakers of the session were Ali Jalali - Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington D.C.; Arabinda Acharya - S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Ely Karmon -The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel; and Molly Charles - founding member and adjunct Director of National Addiction Research Centre.
A book by Colonel Kailash Chandra Dixit, ‘Building Army’s Human Resource for Sub-conventional Warfare’ was also released on the occasion. The book portrays how the peculiarities of sub-conventional warfare impact soldiers and what needs to be done to address the ill effects by various agencies at macro, as well as micro level. Specifically, it brings out the methodology to sustain motivation of troops in this special warfare and suggests measures to optimize their stress levels. Through this book, the author has brought out various issues, which cause extraordinary stress among army personnel operating in a sub-conventional warfare environment. The issue assumes greater significance due to the fact that soldiers trained in conventional warfare tactics suffer higher levels of stress when employed for sub-conventional operations. Various realistic recommendations have been made to address stress-related issues in the army. Col. Dixit is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and a former scholar of IDSA.
Energy Security Critical for India’s Transformation: NSA