PhD.
Synopsis
India’s
Limited War Doctrine: Structural, Political and Organisational Factors
Background
In the wake of Kargil
War India
has developed a Limited War doctrine. It is posited that the Indian posture
with respect to Pakistan
has witnessed a shift from the earlier posture of defensive bias in conventional
deterrence to an offensive bias. While India’s earlier doctrine in the
post 1971 War period had been a defensive one, organisational and doctrinal
innovations in the mid Eighties served to enhance the offensive content of the
land warfare doctrine. This was prompted by the necessity to pursue
conventional operations under conditions of perceived nuclear asymmetry. This
doctrine of conventional deterrence comprising a dissuasive capability along
with a counter offensive capability has now moved to an offensive conventional
posture in the form of the Cold Start doctrine envisaging Limited War. This thesis
examines the impetus to doctrinal change in conventional doctrine to Limited
War doctrine brought about by the advent of the nuclear era in the
India-Pakistan context.
Doctrinal development in
the Army was driven by the military experience since the mid Eighties, that
comprised the crisis of 1987 and 1990, internal conflict in Kashmir,
the Kargil War of 1999 and the exercise in coercive diplomacy of Operation
Parakram in 2001-02. It was also informed by conflicts in the Gulf and
Operation Enduring Freedom. Organisational changes and equipment acquisitions
prompted by the revolution in military affairs have also occurred in the
period. These have led to considerable doctrinal evolution. However, overt
nuclearisation has made conflict limitation an overriding imperative. This has
led to a doctrine called ‘Cold Start’. This countenances a quick mobilisation
followed by conventional advances across a wide front in multiple offensives, advances
that are likely of limited depth in light of the nuclear factor.
Limitation has been
brought about by the need to avoid triggering the envisaged nuclear thresholds
of Pakistan.
These are along four dimensions: levels of military attrition, territorial
losses, economic viability and internal stability. Concerted offensive action
by the Indian military would nudge these thresholds directly and indirectly.
The resulting cumulative physical and psychological impact could lower the nuclear
retaliation threshold for Pakistan
from the perceived high level. To obviate breakdown in nuclear deterrence, India has nuclear
deterrence based on ‘assured retaliation’ and ‘assured destruction’ through a
massive response. Thus the offensive posture of Cold Start is dovetails neatly
into India’s
nuclear doctrine.
The change in conventional
doctrine is contrary to the logical expectation. In the nuclear age, the
popular understanding is that the principal purpose of the military is no
longer to win wars but to avert them (Brodie, 1946, p. 76). Thus the offensive
posture as evidenced by Cold Start is contrary to the general understanding.
This owes in part to India’s
adaptation of Brodie’s concept to its purpose and circumstance. India believes nuclear
weapons deter nuclear weapons and not war. Therefore there is scope for Limited
War despite the nuclearisation of the subcontinent. This follows the Cold War
sequence in which Limited War theorising appeared only after the Korean War. Secondly,
India
is a status quo and stronger power in the regional India-Pakistan dyad. This should have logically led to a defensive
doctrine. That this logic has not been borne out, calls for an explanation in
terms of its origin and impact. This, the thesis hopes to achieve through a
case study on the change in defence doctrine noted.
What accounts for the
change to an offensive conventional doctrine? The origins can be discerned at
the three separate levels of analysis. At the structural level the security situation
impacted India’s
strategic posture. A perspective has it that acquisition of a nuclear capability
emboldened Pakistan to
launch a proxy war in Kashmir and thereafter
provoke a border war in Kargil. India
was also forced to respond with restraint both at Kargil and during Operation
Parakram. So as to exploit the space between sub-conventional level and the
nuclear threshold, it posited Limited War in the form of Cold Start doctrine. The
other dimension of the origin of Limited War doctrine lies in developments at
the ‘unit level’. At the national level, there was a change towards a more ‘proactive’
strategic culture in India.
Political developments particularly of aggressive nationalism required matching
developments in projection of growing Indian power capabilities. This
eventuated in the Cold Start doctrine. Another prominent perspective is that nuclearisation
has indeed rendered conventional operations problematic owing to the prospect
of escalation. This has resulted in the largest service seeking a fresh
doctrine to maintain its premier self-image and standing in the nuclearised
context. This perspective looks ‘inside the box’ at the interaction between
service culture, inter-service rivalry and organisational processes that has
resulted in the new doctrine. In assessing the primary motivation, the thesis
would be able to validate strategic and organisational theory in their relative
merits.
Review
of Literature
There are two bodies of literature
of interest. One is theoretical and the other South Asia
specific. The theoretical body of literature of interest can be divided into three
types – deterrence related strategic theory; theories on national strategic
culture; and organisation theory dealing
with organisational culture and process and the bureaucratic politics model.
The strategic literature
of relevance reflects on types of nuclear deterrence (Freedman, 1981);
distinction between the various types of nuclear use as first strike,
decapitating and second strike (Freedman, 2003); and the relationship between
deterrence and compellence (Schelling, 1967), and has largely been produced in
the context of the Cold War (Paret, 1986). Nuclear and strategic theory covers ‘deterrence
by punishment’ and ‘deterrence by denial’ (Snyder, 1958), strategic coercion
(Freedman, 1998), and Limited War (Osgood, 1957). Theory relevant to the second
level of analysis – at the unit level – focuses on the aspect of national
strategic culture. With respect to India the landmark works are of
George Tanham, Cohen and Rosen. Their work has been taken forward by Shekhar Gupta
(1995), Tellis (1997, 2000), Mattoo et al. (1996), Jaswant Singh (1999) and
Karnad (2002). The third and last strand of the thesis, focusing on the
organisational level, is within the superpower context, in terms of
bureaucratic politics over budget and nuclear weapons between the armed
services and the defence and state bureaucracies (Halperin, 1974, Allison, 1971),
and outside the Cold War context (Legro, 1995; Kier, 1997). The second stream is
South Asia specific that approaches regional strategic
developments either through the prism of theory (Sridharan, 2007; Rajagopalan,
2004) and a policy relevant prism (Kanwal, 2001).
Nuclear doctrinal
thinking in the context of the Cold War evolved with developments in the
strategic sphere, particularly of nuclear weapons by the two super powers
(Freedman, 1989). The shift from ‘massive retaliation’ of the fifties to
‘flexible response’ of the Sixties has been discussed widely (Friedberg, 1980).
The impact of the Korean War was in development of Limited War theorising
(Osgood, 1979). Works discussing doctrine in the pre-nuclear (Kier, 1997) and
nuclear age (Allison and Halperin, 1972) approached it from both strategic (Posen,
1984) and organisational theory perspectives (Pfaltzgarffer and Raanan,
1984). Thus there is a pre-existing theoretical backdrop to the study.
With respect to South
Asia, in general the two doctrines – nuclear and conventional – have been dealt
with separately in strategic literature, perhaps on account of the nuclear
aspect being deemed in the civilian - political and scientific - domain, while
conventional doctrine has been seen to be the professional concern of the
military (Army Training Command, 1998; 2004). There is thus limited thinking on
defence doctrine taking the nuclear and conventional doctrines conjointly
(Kanwal, 2008). Also there is little on the bureaucratic politics that has
accompanied these changes. The Army-Air Force standoff on the issue of
integrated commands and Chief of Defence Staff is an example of the internal
dynamics impacting doctrine in the military. There is evidence of doctrinal
competition between the services from the fact that these have been released in
an autonomous fashion and independently by each service. A logical way would
have been to begin jointly and then arrive at service doctrines as an outflow
of the joint doctrine. Instead the contrary has occurred and it is only now
that the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff is working towards integrating
the three doctrines. This proves that there is scope for a gainful study of the
institutional element in doctrine generation as proposed in this thesis.
There is considerably
more writing on nuclear doctrine (Tellis 2001; Karnad 2002; Perkovich, 1999). These
generally reflect not so much on the aspect of the military utility of nuclear
weapons as much as on deterrence aspects dealing with ensuring these are not
used. In such writings on the nuclear issue, the main focus has continually
shifted as connected questions have been encountered over time. At the
forefront earlier was the status of the ‘nuclear option’ (Mattoo and
Cortwright, 1996). In the mid-Nineties, the impact of the anti-proliferation
agenda in the form of the CTBT on India’s open nuclear option was the
concern. After Pokhran II, the focus shifted to the type of nuclear deterrence
for India
such as ‘force-in-being’ (Tellis, 2001). Also there was a surfeit of writing on
the manner India
had got to the stage of nuclearisation, particularly in the form of a narrative
history of the process and the strategic compulsions that informed it at various
stages. The Draft was discussed thread bear critically (Chari,
2000) and also in spirited anti-nuclear polemics (Vanaik and Bidwai, 1999). Discussion
on conventional doctrine was largely along the lines of how conventional
doctrine has declined due to budget constraints in a liberalising India, thereby enabling Pakistani
sub-conventional war in Kashmir.
The thesis would not
require following the well-tread route of narrating the developments leading up
to the Indian deterrent. This ground has been covered comprehensively by
Perkovich (1999) and Raj Chengappa (2000). While the former has a wider
historical canvas, the latter brings the focus on the immediate picture through
interviews of several key players. Prekovich’s book India’s Nuclear Bomb has concentrated on the manner India arrived
at and kept the nuclear option open. It provides a wealth of information and
brought out for the first time Indian armed forces engagement and input in the
nuclear question. His important contribution is in highlighting that security
considerations alone did not determine India’s nuclear path.
The nature of the
deterrent has been reflected on in greatest of detail by Karnad (2002) and
Tellis (2001) owing to Indian glasnost
after the nuclear tests and the high level access of the two authors. Both
adopt divergent approaches. Karnad in his book Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security prefers India to move
beyond to a tous azimuts capability
to include a strategic triad, thermonuclear weapons and ICBMs. He rightly
discerns the effect of disproportionality as necessitating a ‘flexible
response’ doctrine. Tellis in India’s
Emerging Nuclear Posture examines India’s
strategic choices in the future strategic environment in Asia and places India’s nuclear
arsenal somewhere between ‘recessed deterrent’ of the Nineties and a ‘ready
arsenal’ through a process of ‘creeping weaponisation’. Other works of lesser
length and significance of this genre, discussing the nature of the nuclear
deterrent in term of numbers of warheads required, command and control
arrangements etc. are the earlier one by Brigadier Nair’s Nuclear India (1992) and Rear Admiral Menon’s A Nuclear Strategy for India (2000).
Limited War thinking was
developed to offset Pakistan
taking advantage of the recessed deterrence prevailing at the nuclear level. It
was energised by Pakistani military action in Kargil and sponsored terrorism
that breached Indian tolerance threshold in the parliament attack case; revealing
it as a strategic problem that overt nuclearisation had not quite vacated
(Singh, 2000). Lastly, has been reflection on India’s Cold Start doctrine that
can be taken as operationalisation of the Limited War concept (Tarapore, 2005).
The relative lack of
writings on the impact on conventional operations of nuclearisation can be
attributed to the military being out of the nuclear policy loop for most part,
as also secrecy surrounding military matters in general. The most prominent
contributor to nuclear thinking was General Sundarji. In 1980, he had organised
a postal seminar as Commandant of the College of Combat
on the question of impact of nuclear asymmetry on conventional deterrence
(College of Combat, 1981). His major contribution is however in holding forth
on the quid pro quo and the quid pro quo plus option (Sundarji,
1992). These responses not amounting to ‘massive retaliation’ have apparently
been acceded to by India,
as can be inferred from the succinct doctrine that emerged in 2003. Sundarji’s forward
looking thinking on the changed political and conventional operations context of
nuclearisation has not been accepted. Sanjay Badri-Maharaj (2000) was the first
to identify a shift in India’s
conventional doctrine away from the Sundarji era’s conventional doctrine of
bisecting Pakistan
at its midriff.
The writings on Limited
War doctrine that emerged in wake of Kargil War were on the availability of a
window between war outbreak and the nuclear threshold which could be exploited
for conventional operations (Malik, 2004). Such writing was in the form of a
building of a rationale to undercut the otherwise logical and theoretically
justified position that nuclearisation should lead to greater caution if not a
peace dividend. The latter was denied as a possibility with the failure of the Lahore peace process to avert
the Kargil conflict. Thus it came to fore that in the India-Pakistan equation, Pakistan,
though a weaker power, believed that nuclearisation had given it greater room
to work its revisionist aims. To ‘call Pakistan’s bluff’, Limited War
theorising was initiated by the then Defence Minister George Fernandes
(Fernandes, 2000) with the logic that nuclear weapons deter nuclear weapons and
not war itself.
Operation Parakram
generated the next round of thinking (Kalyanaraman, 2002). The major lesson
learnt was that strike corps were very slow in mobilising and were likely to
breach the likely nuclear threshold of Pakistan. This was best brought out
in a book on the operation, The War Unfinished
by Lt Gen VK Sood and Pravin Swahney (2003). The drawbacks of the operation and
subsequent military exercises informed the formulation of the Cold Start
doctrine. Subsequent writing has dwelt on the problem areas not only from the
Indian point of view but also from Pakistan’s. The focus has now shifted
onto the conventional field (Ladwig, 2008).
India, to get out of the
strategic cul de sac of
subconventional proxy war launched against it, has attempted to bring its
conventional strength back into the reckoning. In doing this it has to contend
with an uncertain Pakistani nuclear threshold. Even if high, the response to
the same has to be worked through in advance. Nuclear doctrine therefore cannot
be taken in isolation but has to be clubbed with conventional doctrine. Karnad
has discussed the implications of a proactive conventional doctrine in his ‘Sialkot grab’ scenario
(2005). He advocates placing Pakistan,
through successful proactive conventional operations, in such a position that
any resort to nuclear ‘first use’ would only be on its own people or against India counter
value targets. This would be an impossible choice that could stay Pakistan’s ‘first
use’ option. Karnad - having the advantage over Tellis of seeing his book being
released after the crisis in 2002 - has influenced subsequent thinking in
favour of ‘proactive’ conventional operations.
The dangers have been
dealt with by many authors on both sides of the border (Raghavan, 2001; Mazari,
2002 and 2004; Khan, 2004; Lodhi, 2001). India’s
nuclear power is seen in geo-strategic terms with respect to the balance of
power with China.
With respect to Pakistan,
writers as Kanwal (2008) and Rajagopalan (2005) believe that, with the nuclear
threshold being high, resort to nuclear weapons is less likely. India’s nuclear
weapons are to be used in a retaliatory strike promising unacceptable damage on
break down of deterrence. Kanwal, in his
Indian Army Vision 20:20 (2008) advocates
a massive nuclear response even if Pakistan goes in for nuclear first
use in a defensive mode in its own territory. In his Shaping the Arsenal (2000) he has attributed this to the pressure
of Indian public opinion which he sees as unwilling to be placated with
anything but dismemberment of Pakistan on any form of nuclear ‘first use’ by it.
This is in keeping with
the popular understanding of India’s nuclear doctrine as being one of ‘assured
retaliation’ and ‘assured destruction’; authenticated by the press release from
the Cabinet Committee on Security on 04 Jan 2003 confirming operationalisation of
the nuclear doctrine. This doctrine has a more offensive content than the Draft
Nuclear Doctrine (1999) that informed it. In particular it has diluted the No
First Use clause through countenancing nuclear first use against a ‘major
attack’ by either of the other two weapons of mass destruction – chemical and
biological weapons. The second is that the punitive retaliation has been
promised to be ‘massive’. This is a change from the Draft Nuclear Doctrine in
which the term ‘massive’ was not mentioned, but the term ‘sufficient’ had been
used. There is even an impetus to a move
away from No First Use with a National Security Advisory Board recommending it.
This offensive bias in the nuclear doctrine complements the offensive intent of
the conventional doctrine. This is apparently designed to bolster deterrence.
The thesis shall trace
the origin of the offensive bias in the doctrine with respect to the
conventional doctrine at three levels of analysis – structural, political and
organisational. While the strategic
motivation has been discussed above in some detail, the impetus at the unit
level anchored in changes in internal politics and internal to the organisation
remains.
The foremost internal
political development since the early Nineties has been in the rise of right
wing politics in India
in the form of Hindutva philosophy. This has led to an assertive nationalism.
Growing Indian economic power brought about by liberalisation and military
strength has led to an increasingly confident India seeking a power position
going beyond being a regional player to a global power. The culmination of this
trend has been in the nuclear tests, followed eventually by the break through
Indo-US nuclear deal. This journey has been traced in works by Cohen (2001), Sunil
Khilnani (1997), C Raja Mohan (2003) and Sumit Ganguly (2003).
Posen (1984, p. 33) has
characterised doctrines as differing in their offensive-defensive-deterrent
bias, degree of innovation and their level of integration with the political
objectives of grand strategy. By this characterisation Cold Start would be an
offensive doctrine with the change indicating innovativeness in the military.
It can be questioned with respect to integration for it has not received
political imprimatur nor support from sister services.
Posen has sought
explanation for doctrine in ‘balance of power’ theory, being covered with
respect to Cold Start under the discussion on strategic circumstance that has
prompted it, and ‘organization theory’. Organisation theory has it that the military
seeks autonomy, reduction of uncertainty and innovates when confronted with
failure. Cold Start appears to substantiate the theory in that it is an attempt
to impose order on a crisis by seizing the initiative. It favours autonomy for
the military by restricting the choices of the political head to the offensive
and, lastly, the innovation has redress to perceived shortcomings in coping
with the earlier two crises. Kier (1997, p. 5) says that the choice between
offensive and defensive doctrines is a product of the interaction between
constraints in the domestic political arena and the military’s organisational
culture. She question whether doctrine is responsive to the security
environment as inaccurate and favours a cultural approach instead. There is
thus a theoretical basis for approaching Cold Start doctrine through the
organisational theory perspective. The organisational theory lens has been
adopted by Rajagopalan (2007) in his study of Indian Army’s counter insurgency
doctrine. The same can serve to understand changes in its conventional war
doctrine too. In doing so the thesis shall be filling in the existing gap in
literature looking ‘into the box’.
Definition,
Rationale and Scope of Study
Policy, strategy and
doctrine are liable to mistaken interchangeable use. Barry Posen (1984) and
Rajagopalan (2007) have discussed the differences. Policy is the overarching
set of aims and parameters such as on India’s
nuclear status - whether and when should India exercise the nuclear option.
Doctrine is a set of guidelines for action such as ‘retaliation only’ and
‘assured retaliation’ with respect to nuclear doctrine. Strategy is an
ends-means choice within the terms of reference of policy, in consonance with
and not necessarily confined by doctrine: such as the optimum targeting sets
for nuclear retaliation – counter value or mix - on breakdown of deterrence. The
distinction between the conventional and nuclear doctrine is well understood
and so is the distinction between deterrence by punishment and by denial. The
difference between offensive doctrines and defensive doctrines would require to
be treated separately.
In the Indian case, with
respect to conventional doctrine, an offensive posture has been adopted, which
bespeaks of strengthening deterrence in so far it is to dissuade the adversary
from continuation of the proxy war. The two doctrines - nuclear doctrine in
conjunction with conventional forces launched aggressively under the tenets of
Cold Start doctrine - lend themselves to interpretation as an offensive posture
adopted by India.
At the structural level, this has been necessitated to compel Pakistan from
desisting from its sub-conventional proxy war.
At the next level, the impetus can be attributed to the advent of
cultural nationalism in internal politics. This has led to an assertive Indian foreign
and security policy at the unit level. The other possible explanation at the
organisational level is that perceived inability of the Army to bring its
conventional power to bear in the Kargil conflict and the Operation Parakram
crisis has prompted an institutional rethink on doctrine. The rationale of the study is to highlight the
change and understand the impetus behind it at the three levels of analysis –
structural, political and organisational.
Of theoretical interest,
to be pursued in the case study, is the manner of the change, its intellectual
antecedents, the processes involved, drivers and logic. How a doctrine acquires
political imprimatur in democratic dispensation would be traced, perhaps for
the first time. This would be done in the examination of the impetus to
doctrinal change at the unit level in terms of impact of internal political
change on national strategic culture. It has been averred that though the
preceding Limited War conceptualisation had the benefit of political direction,
its operationalisation in the form of the Cold Start doctrine has not yet been
politically approved. The change to a more permissive nuclear doctrine has been
approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security. That this has not been done with
respect to the conventional doctrine indicates a belief that conventional
operations are the military’s ambit. This may not be accurate in the nuclear
age with the escalatory ladder being tightly coupled. The possible move towards
compellence would be the arena for future direction of study suggested by the
thesis.
The study restricts
itself to the India-Pakistan equation as the Cold Start doctrine is not
applicable to China.
Airpower doctrine, naval doctrine and sub-conventional doctrine would find
mention in the consideration in so far as these impacted Cold Start
formulation. The period covered is post Kargil when Limited War doctrine was
formally formulated. In so far as other wars engaged in by India have been limited, their
limitation was fortuitous or due to lack of employable capability. The Kargil
conflict, the first in the nuclear age, was kept consciously limited and
therefore gave rise to deliberations on Limited War. The Cold Start doctrine
and well publicised exercises with troops since then provide material for
focusing the study.
Research
Problem/Question and Hypothesis
The
chief purpose of military establishments in the nuclear era is to avert wars. Given
this as ‘commonsense’ and in light of India
being a status quo power with a relative power advantages, the expectation of India
after nuclearisation would have been for continuation of a defensive deterrent doctrine.
The movement has however been towards potentially offensive doctrines. The critical question therefore
is: Why has India gone in for an offensive land
warfare doctrine despite nuclearisation? Potential explanations are at the
structural, the unit and the organisational levels.
At the structural level,
continuing security threats emanating from a military dominated Pakistan negate
the possibility of exclusion of a military response. There is therefore a continuing
perceived utility of military force into the nuclear age. This was conceptually
arrived at in the post Kargil period as Limited War concept. However,
operationalisation of the Limited War doctrine awaited the formulation of the
Cold Start doctrine in the post Operation Parakram period. The expectation is
that an offensive posture would reinforce deterrence. The hypothesis at the
structural level is: The change in India’s land
warfare doctrine has been to reinforce conventional deterrence in face of continuing
external security threats.
At the next level of
analysis, the unit level, the change in national strategic culture has been to
a more assertive, power oriented national security and foreign policy. This
owes to strategic developments, to include steady accretion in India’s
economic might, acquisition of nuclear capability, relative advantages in
conventional power and to the changed complexion of internal politics. Following
from this the hypothesis at this level is: The
change in India’s
land warfare doctrine owes to evolution of Indian strategic culture.
The general
understanding is that utility of conventional force is threatened by
obsolescence in a nuclear age. In giving itself an offensive conventional
doctrine, the Army has retained its institutional interests into the nuclear
age and its self image as premier service. It is also an assertion of autonomy
from civilian control in an area in which the Army considers it can exercise
its professional prerogative. The hypothesis arising in the organisational
level is: The change in India’s land
warfare doctrine has been to preserve the Army’s institutional interest into
the nuclear age.
The hypothesis at the
three levels of analysis are restated below:
Hypothesis
1: The change in India’s
land warfare doctrine has been to reinforce conventional deterrence in face of
continuing external security threats.
Hypothesis
2: The change in India’s
land warfare doctrine owes to evolution of Indian strategic culture.
Hypothesis
3: The change in India’s
land warfare doctrine has been to preserve the Army’s institutional interest into
the nuclear age.
Research
Methods
The study seeks to
explain the shift from deterrence based on dissuasion to an offensive posture as
signified by the change in the land warfare doctrine of India. It would
first require to prove there has indeed been a movement in the doctrine and to
identify the nature of the same. This can be done through a historical survey
of doctrinal development in Indian Army. The earlier position and the fresh
position would have to be contrasted to highlight the change. Next it would
require seeking a theoretically informed explanation for change in the
dependent variable - doctrine – in manipulating independent variables at the
structural and organisational levels – security threat and institutional
interest respectively.
The case study method
has been adopted so as to provide scope for an elaborate description of
doctrinal change. This would entail studying strategic literature, particularly
in-service publications, on the issue and its justification. Most illuminating
would be access to dissertations of the officers on courses at the Defence Services
Staff College,
Army War
College and National Defence
College for the purpose.
Doctrine is a
historically shrouded issue. However, there has been a doctrinal effervescence
lately to meet the requirement of transparency in a democratic society, the
expansion of the media and its post Kargil interest in military affairs, and
information war requirements. In nuclear matters there is the additional
requirement of communication to the adversary of the doctrine to avert
misperception and bolster credibility. There has also been a proliferation of think
tanks and publications and expansion of the retired fraternity. There is thus
an opening up that could be advantageously used in data collection for the case
study.
Primary sources comprise
annual reports of the Ministries, press releases, speeches and statements by
personages holding high office and official publications of the services. Media
reports on the exercises conducted by army formations; commentaries of
Pakistani strategists; strategic commentaries by noted defence watchers and retired
officers; and internet available strategic literature from think tanks are
additional secondary sources.
Tentative
Chapterisation
Chapter 1 – Introduction. This would cover the
background, project the broad issue and need for the study, conduct a literature
review to bring out the gaps, present the hypothesis, elaborate on the methodology,
definitions and scope of the study.
Chapter 2 –Accounting
for Doctrinal Change.
It will take a historical look at the evolution of Indian conventional and nuclear
doctrines and bring out the changes in conventional doctrine. It will discuss
processes of doctrine formulation and change.
Chapter 3 – Structural
Factors. This
will
look at India’s
strategic predicament and how the land warfare doctrine has adapted to deal
with it.
Chapter 4 – Political
Factors. The
chapter will discuss the rise of India and the impact of this and
changes in internal political thought on Indian strategic culture.
Chapter 5 –
Organisational Factors. This will draw on organisational process and
bureaucratic politics models to account for the change in doctrine.
Chapter 6 – Conclusion. An assessment will be
done of the relative validity of the three hypotheses based on the three
different drivers of doctrine. This will help highlight primary motivations and
possible directions for further study.
Bibliography - Deleted.
Full text of PhD is at - https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3qe0obnat22iac/full%20text.pdf?dl=0