The New Arthashastra: A Security Strategy for India

by Gurmeet Kanwal

For a country that has fought five wars and is hemmed in by nuclear-armed states, India surprisingly does not have a formally declared national security strategy.All the major powers of the world publish documents that spell out their national interests, identify their threats -- political, economic, diplomatic or with regard to security -- and draw up policies to deal with them. The absence of a similar doctrine makes India's defence policy look ad hoc and creates the impression that the country is unprepared to realize its global ambitions.The New Arthashastra is a path-breaking attempt to recommend a national security strategy for India. It does the difficult groundwork for India's political leaders and policymakers by bringing the best names -- from within the community as well as from the armed forces and academia -- to the ideating table.This collection of twenty essays covers a wide range of topics: nuclear deterrence, defence spending, the domestic production of weapons, and bracing for the wars of the future that will be fought in space and cyberspace. Most important, it presents a roadmap to address India's chief concerns: Chinese assertiveness and Pakistan's unrelenting proxy war.Informed by the expertise of analysts with inside-out knowledge of their domains, The New Arthashastra offers enduring and practical insights to strategists and lay readers alike.

Genres: India

448 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2016

Reviews

[Aditya]

Solid coverage. Significant in so many aspects for India. We really do require a security strategy document for India. Some of the issues mentioned in this book have already been given the utmost importance by the present Modi Government. CDS being one of them. And like it's mentioned in the book, we really need to let go off the age old non alignment policies. A lot could be achieved if we can let go off the ancient perspective of looking at India's security issues. Solid read. Looking forward to more in lines of these.

[Nitin Thakur]

A well versed and extensively explained, discussed, analysed and conclusion confronted articles. One of the best insights from the Former Defence Personnels (mostly). It really puts up the lackadaisical approach of the politicians, who having no or less experience of the Strategic Studies and Defence imperatives, takes up unsuitable decisions and are not ready to placate.

Politicians widely boast the way the civilians control the Army as well as the Nuclear Weapons, but the future of the same is highly contentiously further embolden the unstable Pakistan and Aggressive China. The lack of war preparedness, inadequate budget allotment to the modernisation of the Defence, R&D, lazy PSU's in arms production, and other dimensions creates a cloud of doubt the future of the country, when compared with the Communist neighbourhood. We are facing threats from all directions, whether its String of Pearls, OBOR, CPEC, the ISI and Pak Army in Afghanistan, PoK (LoC), LAC, or the internal issues of Naxals, Political cheesiness and many more, is taking us slowly to an ambitious situation.

Well, not being much of a strategic person, it really provides an all round view of the threats, approach, and future prospectives. I hope it would be very useful to most of the people in the interest area, have a view of the Defence personnels especially in todays changing strategic culture.