Underlining the unpredictable and chaotic geopolitical order, in which China is already 30-50 years ahead of India, experts, while deliberating upon India’s position in the global order during the 10th edition of the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh on November 14, said that India needs an effective and regular assessment of its national security needs and aspirations.
With China far ahead, even vis-à-vis the US, the world order is rapidly imploding, with leading global powers expending military energies in pursuits ranging from territorial gains to securing oil reserves and regime change. This culminates in the urgent need for India to review and fortify its security architecture through innovations in space, cyber and artificial intelligence.
Stating that there was nothing known as “strategic dependence” and that the term was merely a euphemism, Sushant Sareen from the Observer Research Foundation pointed out that even the US is dependent on many other countries to meet its needs and aspirations. “No nation can be fully dependent upon any one country. We need to outgrow this perception as each country today prioritises its own needs,” he said.
Referring to the impact of the ongoing wars — involving Russia and Ukraine on one side and the US and Iran on the other — and the equations between old partner nations, Sareen said that there was bound to be some resistance, which might not result in a major alliance in Europe. Middle powers, which in today’s scenario are European nations, might resist to some extent, but there would not be any major new alliance, he added.
Underlining the ever-changing face of asymmetrical warfare, Ambassador Gurjit Singh said that an integrated approach involving space technology, cyber architecture and drones would create a potent ecosystem to tackle rising threats.
Referring to the tangible and unsettling instability and inconsistency in the global outlook, he said that the ongoing wars in Africa showed that it was not only the privilege of superpowers to inflict damage by starting wars. “The world order needs stability, which can only come from a position of strength for a particular nation,” he added.
In the context of India-Pakistan relations, Ambassador Yashvardhan K Sinha said that the character of warfare had changed dramatically, as was evident in the US-Iran conflict, where supply and choke points had been weaponised to inflict collateral damage. “Though we must keep preparing for conventional warfare, the need to ramp up our technology in space and cyber domains is critical,” he stressed.
