India is a
powerful game player in South Asia. How India shapes its diplomatic policies
and markets its strategic culture will determine or determines the strategic
culture of South Asia. The United States is keen on building close strategic
ties with India as a counterweight to China in the South Asian Region.
International Politics
thrives on balance of power. In strategic culture power plays a very key role.
Power determines wars and nature of conflict and post conflict transformation
of societies. Diplomatic and military policies also determine power structure
in International Politics. Without force there can be no strategic culture. Deployment
of the armed forces is a natural corollary to safeguarding territorial
boundaries and homeland security.
Indias strategic
thought is largely determined by the currents and undercurrents of politics in
Pakistan. The recent change of guard, Army Chief has added to the woes of
Indian establishment trying to settle disputes, proxy wars and Pakistan backed
terrorist activities on Indian Soil.
What is war or
strategic culture?
Strategic
culture in the words of Johnston is an integrated set of symbols (i.e.
argumentation structures, languages, analogies, metaphors etc) that acts to
establish pervasive and long lasting grand strategic preferences by formulating
concepts of the role and efficacy of force in interstate political affairs and
by clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the
strategic preferences seem uniquely realistic and efficacious.
Karl von
Clausewitz's argument that war 'is only a part of political intercourse,
therefore by no means an independent thing in itself .war is nothing but a
continuation of political intercourse with an admixture of other means'. This
definition helps in understanding the broader setting in which war is located. Voices
all across the academia has elicited the response that the entire spectrum of
war or strategic culture has shifted inexorably from the traditional military
dimension to areaslike political and economic warfare, psychological warfare,
etc. War is the use of organised force between two human groups pursuing
contradictory policies, each group seeking to impose its policies upon the other'.
Malinowski defines war as an 'armed conflict between two independent political
units, by means of organised military force, in pursuit of a tribal or national
policy'.
Quincy Wright
accepts that war is waged on the diplomatic, economic, and propaganda fronts as
well as on the military front and that the art of war coordinates all these elements
to the purpose of victory.
What is victory?
Was the recent
cancellation of SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad a victory of the SAARC
nations over Pakistan? Irrational use of resource, is it victory? The very purpose
of the United Nations was to save the succeeding generations from the scourge of
war. Are UN sanctions victory?
Strategic
culture is also piling up of nuclear weapons in the name of self defence. In a
word torn apart by conflict this is a serious issue? The solution is nothing
but economic development, trade and smart business investments development of
smart cities etc. Addressing the issues of hunger poverty, malnourishment,
child mortality rate, human rights violations, human trafficking, gender based
violence are all important components of strategic culture. India is heading
towards becoming a global power and in what appears to be a clear indication from
the Indian establishment that one needs to develop deeper insights into
understanding foreign relations with India’s neighbours all of them and form a
common culture of strategic policy and diplomacy. Means rather than ends are
important. And the means are economic empowerment and socio political
development of the region. The Nehruvian policy that Pakistan can be dealt with
dialogue is utopian now.
