This commentary is inspired by the Annual Gorkha Brigade Conference held at New Delhi on 11 February 2017 and the unique relationship between India and Nepal that this military connection underpins.

While the Cuban armed forces are but a shadow of their former self with unserviceable equipment and massive reductions in personnel strength, the country still retains combat capabilities far in excess of any of its Caribbean neighbours.

With some innovative thinking, on-line arrangements with suppliers, including the Canteen Stores Department, could reduce the cost of storage and distribution and, more importantly, help in maintaining a high satisfaction level among troops.

The capabilities of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force will be significantly boosted in the current phase of modernisation but the air wing still lacks resources.

While the fate of the peace process between the Colombian Government and FARC remains uncertain, innovative use of technology and tactics on the part of the Colombian Air Force has played no small part in convincing the rebel group that its military struggle was doomed to fail.

The perception of discrimination and the attendant reluctance of Indo-Trinidadians and Indo-Guyanese to enlist in proportionate numbers gives rise to a circle of claims of discrimination that never augur well for good race relations.

While the Argentinian military’s desperate state of affairs can be partly blamed on the country’s economic woes, a substantial portion of the blame must fall on the somewhat tense relationship between the military and the civilian government.

With improved manageability of support forces like ITBP on the Line of Actual Control in the Arunachal segment, the Army gains some flexibility and cushion time for intervention should the need arise.

It is time India devised appropriate tactics to meet the current threat. It is imperative that the armed forces prepare for ‘the most likely scenario’ rather than ‘the worst case scenario’. But to be fair, this can only be done when there exists a clear national military policy/strategy.