Gp Capt PK Mulay
Geopolitics and the Games Nations Play
“Hasn’t it always been like this?’ asked Charlotte. ‘Haven’t they always been games that empires play with one another? – Sherry Thomas, The Art of Theft Background Just a couple of…
Cyber and Cognitive Warfare: Dreaming of Winning Wars Sans Violence?
“The purpose of warfare is not to fight; it is to achieve a political objective. If you can achieve this objective without kinetic conflict, so much the better.” – Prof…
The Indian Way of War!
‘With whom will we fight? Where will we fight? What is the character of the war that we will fight? How will we fight?’— Jiang Zemin1 The phrase ‘way of…
Rethinking the Dynamics of Sino-Indian Rivalry
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. – Leo Tolstoy Introduction There is a sense of déjà vu about the Sino-Indian standoff in Ladakh. After three years and…
Theatre Commands: Apprehensions, Challenges and Alternatives
Soldiers hate two things; change and the way things are — Anon The National Defence Academy (NDA) was established with the lofty ideal of inculcating a sense of camaraderie among…
The Big Takeaways from India’s Post-Independence Wars
A wise soldier learns from the past, both the successes and failures. Background Wars shape the destinies of nations and are characterised by tales of courage, resilience, and bravery. Military…
Future of Attack Helicopters: The Million Dollar Question?
Background Third of October 2022, was a memorable day for Indian Aviation as the defence minister presided over the formal handing over of the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) to the…
Air Superiority or Air Denial: The Truth about the Air War in Ukraine
In 1939, Winston Churchill described the intentions of Russia as “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. The idiom is equally relevant today in respect of Russia’s war…
Rethinking the Politics of Airpower
Airpower is the most difficult of military force to measure or even express in precise terms. — Winston Churchill General Norman Schwarzkopf, the CENTCOM Commander during the Persian…
USA, China, Russia and the Ongoing Churn in International Affairs
The Ukraine-Russia war gets curiouser and curiouser as it enters the seventh month. The happenings could well qualify as a comedy, were it not for the tragic consequences: death and…
The Indian Military and the Element of Surprise
“We are never deceived, we deceive ourselves.” — Goethe The significance of the element of ‘surprise’ in warfare has been acknowledged since time immemorial. Articulated as far back as the…
Effectiveness of India’s Strategic Culture
The IAF strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp at Balakot to avenge the Pulwama terror attack has altered the narrative on India’s strategic thinking. In one stroke, India flexed its…
The Indo-China Denouement
Military confrontations are like the great game of chess. The overall aim is to place the pieces in advantageous positions to get an upper hand. This needs planning, anticipation and…
Post Corona Pandemic World Order
The emergence of a new world order has been under discussion for some time now. The reasons are not difficult to discern. In the last few years, the USA appeared…
Emasculation of Security Agencies
Many years back in Mumbai, then known as Bombay, car drivers used to be very particular while approaching certain road crossings, suspecting that there would be a policeman, fondly called Pandu…
Aircraft Induction: IAF’s Predicament
Indian Air Force’s aircraft acquisitions attract worldwide attention mainly due to the order size and the costs involved. It is thus quite natural that its acquisition plans would be discussed…
