Journal of Defence Studies

India’s Afghan Muddle: A Lost Opportunity by Harsh V. Pant

The book provides a brief history of Afghanistan from ancient times to year 2014, and brings out the strategic interest of world powers in the country. It highlights that Afghanistan has seen considerable turmoil, upheavals and external forces battling for strategic control since the 1970s. In 2001, this culminated into an ‘international war against terror’ post the 9/11 attacks in the US by Al Qaeda, the leaders of which were then sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Geostrategic Imperative of the Indo-Pacific Region: Emerging Trends and Regional Responses

The global economic power shift from the West to East (Asia) and the increasing geostrategic significance of the Indo-Pacific region has resulted in cooperation and competition among the established and rising powers in the region. While the economic cooperation between them has significantly grown in recent past, the geostrategic and geopolitical frameworks remain very uncertain. In essence, the emerging trends and issues in the Indo-Pacific offer unique opportunities as well as daunting challenges to the nations.

The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia by Bill Hayton

The South China Sea disputes have received considerable attention from international relations scholars, world leaders and policymakers in the recent decades. China’s aspirations in the region are challenged by the relatively smaller East Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The territorial disputes, mixed with the concept of sovereignty and national pride, have led to the development of geopolitical rivalry in the region.

Honour and Fidelity: India’s Military Contribution to the Great War 1914–1918 by Amarinder Singh

Three days after the ‘Great War’ was declared at midnight on the 4–5 August 1914, mobilisation orders were issued to marshal what would become the largest expeditionary force of that war and, arguably, of all wars till date. These instructions were issued by Lord Hardinge— the then Viceroy of India—resulting in Expeditionary Force ‘A’ that embarked for France within the month.

China’s Emergence as a Cyber Power

Cyberspace is increasingly becoming an area of contestation among nation states. Similar to the physical domains of land, sea, air and space, superiority in the cyber domain enables a nation state to exert its cyber power. In recent years, China has invested colossal amounts in building the requisite infrastructure and capabilities of its armed forces as well as governance practices to advance towards ‘informationalisation’. This article seeks to discern the motives, threats, objectives, strategy and intent that drive China to amass cyber power.

Arms and the Game: Accepting Competition and Encouraging Cooperation

The article approaches the issue of jointness through new lenses. It first describes how and why arms of the military, the ‘Services’, are different from each other. Airpower is shown to be the emerging technological paradigm, triggering paradigm competition. Next, it draws an analogy between anarchy in international relations (IR) and the existence of the services. It then looks at game theory as used in IR to understand both why inter-organisational competition occurs and how cooperation can evolve with a certain kind of behaviour—reciprocity.

Strategic Direction of the Chinese Navy: Capability and Intent Assessment by Kamlesh K. Agnihotri

Rarely do naval practitioners combine capability and strategy cogently. They are good at explaining technical terminology and its applicability, but insufficient in expounding strategy and analysis. They consider capability in terms of war-oriented applicability, rather than the intention, motivation and strategic outreach of such capability. But if a naval practitioner focuses on strategy and its commensurate capability, he can relatively predict the impact of such capability.

Addressing Maritime Challenges in the Indian Ocean Region: A Case for Synergising Naval Capacities towards Collective Benefits

The vastness and diversity of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and its littorals, and difference in the latters’ overall view of regional security, presents a broad spectrum of challenges therein. The maritime capacities of most littoral states are not strong enough to individually address these challenges. However, synergised response strategies, appropriately regulated by one or two collectively mandated apex bodies, would greatly help in managing regional maritime security.

India’s Military Modernization: Strategic Technologies and Weapons Systems, edited by Rajesh Basrur and Bharath Gopalaswamy

The Oxford University Press could not have timed it better with its second part of the two-part project on Indian military modernisation in the field of advanced technologies like cruise missiles, nuclear weapons, anti-satellite weapons, missile defence, and information warfare. The adjoining regional countries of the Indian peninsula are flooded with new research vis-à-vis modern weapons and in utilising technology to develop even more advanced weaponry. It is, therefore, prudent for India to step up and be recognised for the power that it professes to be.

Coalition Warfare, edited by N.B. Poulsen, K.H. Galster and S. Nørby

The book contains 10 articles from presentations made by Western scholars (including officers from the defence forces) at the Royal Danish Defence College, in 2011, and has been edited by N.B. Paulsen, K.H. Galster and S. Nørby. Their historical research brings out that coalition warfare is not a new phenomenon, and has been practised by nations for different reasons. While, in most cases, countries came together when they faced a common threat and did not have the strength (manpower, finances or military power) to counter it, often it was to regain their pride and prestige in the world.