CDS dismisses case for a written National Security Strategy

NEW DELHI: Dismissing the need for a written National Security Strategy (NSS), chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan has said India has the requisite organisational structures, processes and policies in place to to secure the nation.

In his new book “Ready, Relevant and Resurgent: A Blueprint for the Transformation of India’s Military”, the CDS said strategic analysts and political pundits in India and abroad often state that India does not have a NSS. “That is incorrect and a myopic understanding of the issue. What we don’t have is a written document called NSS, which is published periodically by some Western nations,” he said.

Israel, the “most threatened nation on earth”, does not have a written policy document or NSS. “On the contrary, Pakistan issued a written National Security Policy in 2022 and soon ran into economic problems, political instability, rift between the Armed Forces and the citizens and problems on its western borders,” he said.

Pakistan had the written document but lacked the organisational structures, processes and policies to secure itself, the CDS said.

In 2022, soon after retiring as the Army chief, Gen M M Naravane had argued that India urgently needed to have a NSS that lays down long-term national and geopolitical objectives in the face of myriad threats, stating it would be a folly to create theatre commands without such a policy in place.

“Unless there is a NSS in place, just to keep talking of `theaterisation’ is to actually put the cart before the horse,” Gen Naravane had said.

A primary task before the CDS is the long-delayed creation of tri-Service unified theatre commands to ensure India gets an integrated war fighting machinery within budgetary constraints.