Contours of a Grand Strategy

Bharat Verma

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to ASEAN countries signals renewed efforts to engage and draw the region closer to India. Similarly, becoming an observer member of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) on our West and enhanced cooperation with Central Asia augurs well for India. Dialogue and cooperation with nations of West, Central and South East Asia are acquiring a more meaningful dimension today than at any other time in the history of this nation. From continuous incoherence, the Vajpayee government appears to be moving towards strategic coherence. However to impart dynamism, Prime Minister should develop a simple, all encompassing strategic vision for the nation. Once the political aim is spelled out with clarity and in physically identifiable terms, then the contours of the grand strategy can be worked out. This underpinning of the overarching philosophy will lend strategic direction to the politicians, bureaucrats, defense services, industry, and the strategic community. The lack of a holistic aim, easily identifiable by all segments of the society, creates piecemeal actions. These often clash and do not mesh. Unlike other countries, absence of a game plan without an overall political aim remains peculiar to India since Independence.

For example, United States has a clear intention to maintain its lone super power status by every available means. Unjust invasion of Iraq was to reinforce its unilateral preponderance in world affairs.  Chinese ambitions are pegged at emerging as the next super power by 2020. Hence Beijing needs to adopt strategies to tie down India, as well as to initiate maneuvers that ultimately will replace American influence. To reach their goal they have mastered the art of asymmetric warfare, as it cannot as yet prevail by direct confrontation. At the lower spectrum of power play, Pakistan endeavors to unravel India acting as a Chinese surrogate and end our primacy in the sub-continent. Similarly, European Union is re-packaging itself as an alternate international power hub. Even smaller nations in ASEAN have combined brilliantly to disallow themselves to get overwhelmed by larger nations. This display of collective strength attracts both the Asian giants to seek major interlinks with ASEAN countries.

In comparison, New Delhi over the decades could not develop or articulate a core national goal. Without a visible competitive rallying point from which strategies or counter-strategies could automatically flow, India continues to drift aimlessly. At worse, we have been fire–fighting and merely reacting to events as late as the attack on our Parliament. At best, our elders continue to dream in abstract to be a great power, a developed nation or a global player. None quantify the tangible mechanics and hence these ambitions are delightfully vague. Therefore, in absence of an overall benchmark, Indian policies tend to be irresolute, compartmentalized and without lateral linkages.

To orchestrate a grand strategy, our political aim should be the dominance of Asia by 2020 as an economic power backed by a world class military. This objective is achievable on many counts. Firstly if we energize our nation to emerge as a dominant player in Asia, India automatically becomes a global power. Secondly our geo-strategic location is an enabler. We can act as the backbone or the regional hub to West, Central and East Asia. Hence economic integration of these regions is of paramount importance. Thirdly with our coastal area jutting right out into the Indian Ocean, we are a continental as well as a maritime power. Far-flung from the mainland, many with myopic vision feel hassled by having to secure the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The truth is that these Islands located in the midst of the Indian Ocean act as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. We can project naval power beyond the region, protect the EEZ and develop it into a tourist’s Shangri La! Fourthly if Asia is where the geo-economic action is, then diminishing American presence due to burial of unilateralism in the sands of Iraq and rugged mountains of Afghanistan will necessitate occupying the vacated strategic high ground by a democratic secular power to maintain the overall balance. This assumes significance as Asia is the next principal consumer of energy by 2020 and will boast of the largest population of young and working-age-group people in the world. Within Asia China’s population is set to rapidly age after 2010 unlike ours and shall grow old before it grows rich. But India’s young demographic profile has both, skills and the potential to grow rich before it grows old. Though the size of the population by itself does not confer great power status, a large young population is a prerequisite to evolve as a major player.

And last but not the least; the accretion of extraordinary military power and its effective employment to ensure multi-front energy security, to effect the defense of the expanding economic zone, and its use without remorse are essential. Military power is the ultimate weapon of the state. Let us build it up to its full potential. Today India is in a unique position to access military technology worldwide. Let us use this opportunity to retrofit the Armed Forces with the modern and lethal equipment available, making them the most potent military machine in the region. Simultaneously, train and equip the defence forces of friendly nations – this will increase inter-operability besides being a fruitful economic investment with beneficial political overtones

A nation born out of a long history of slavery displays a tendency to become a surrogate of others. Younger generation born in a free country must decide whether they want their nation to be a surrogate or an independent alternate pole in Asia? The answer to this question alone can determine India’s grand strategy.

Writer is the Editor of the Indian Defence Review and this piece has been reproduced here from the latest issue of the India Defence Review with his permission.