Maj Gen S G Vombatkere
US Boots-on-the-Ground in India?: Focus on Afghanistan
The US Administration is embarrassed by its capitulation to Taliban (signing a peace treaty with Taliban at Doha, February 2020, to allow withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan), the sudden…
Defence Preparedness: Inconvenient truths
Pakistan carries the “hurt” of its 1971 loss of East Pakistan, while China, with memory of its successful 1962 adventure, has its hegemonic aim of becoming the world’s dominant economic…
Cyber Security: Civil and Military Implications
The capability of India’s matchless troops in on-the-ground, blood-and-guts fighting is legendary. But if operational logistics is compromised in advance by a hostile military, wars may be lost even before…
Is the ‘Babu’ scared of veterans’ skills?
Under the banner of IESM (Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Movement), India’s armed forces veterans propose a nation-wide movement, starting with a rally on December 1, 2012, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. This…
Demilitarizing Siachen: Trading Strategic Advantage for Brownie Points
The troubled India-Pakistan relationship has been punctuated by four military conflicts and decades-long military face-off across the IB and LOC, the most recent starting in 1984 on Siachen glacier in…
Have Indian troops abandoned Indian territory?
The incursion by Chinese troops into the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector of Ladakh on 15 April 2013 by erecting and occupying tents was responded to on the ground…
AFSPA: Misconceptions and Ground Realities
Sanjoy Hazarika1 and Walter Fernandes2 bring out the justifiable opposition to AFSPA felt by people from our northeastern states where it was first imposed in 1958. The provocation for…
India and Pakistan: Between Hawks and Peaceniks, is there a middle path?
The beheading and mutilation of the bodies of L/Nk Hemraj and L/Nk Sudarshan Singh by Pakistani soldiers on January 8, 2013, is yet another barbaric act by Pakistan’s army, following…
AFSPA: Who wants the military for internal security?
Parliament and Government Government can function in the interest of people only when there is peace and order in society, persons in power use people-oriented politics, and the rule of…
Lessons from 1962: Is 50 years not enough?
Institutions and nations rarely if ever learn from successes, but it is possible and necessary to learn from institutional or national failure. This is particularly true of military operations. Today,…
Rational National Security
Specifically, defence preparedness is the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister and the National Security Council (NSC), which need to receive accurate advice from the country’s military so as to…
The Siachen Imbroglio
The title and contents of Mr.A.G.Noorani’s article “Settle the Siachen dispute now“1 strongly suggest peace-by-demilitarization of Siachen on an immediate basis. His quest for peace is unexceptionable. Every army jawan…
