Next war cannot be fought on past experience: Gen Rawat

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 7  

In a significant move, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat wants the forces to completely shed the ‘colonial era syndrome’. 

Speaking at the Vivekananda International Foundation, General Rawat sought to highlight how a changed global environment demands a change in outlook and policies.

General Rawat was speaking on the theme ‘shaping the armed forces to meet likely current and future challenges’.

“We cannot fight the next war premised on the experiences and structures of the past wars,” said the CDS. The key stone to the way forward is jointness, integration, and modernisation in line with the changing security environment and utmost optimisation of resources.

A series of initiatives are being undertaken that will change the way Indian Armed forces fight and the way capability is developed. Greater emphasis would now be on advancing jointness and integration across the board to shape congruent perception for the three armed forces to jointly operate efficiently and effectively.

The central theme is ‘to be future ready’ by balancing preparedness for today’s requirements with what we need to do differently to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

India faces multiple and varied security threats and challenges across the full spectrum of conflict -- from proxy war to hybrid to non-contact, conventional and collusive wars under a nuclear overhang, said General Rawat.

India not having a formally published document on ‘National Security Strategy’ does not mean absence of strategic thought or guidance or lack of an institutionalised process on management of National Security.

General Rawat said there is an emergent need to develop a vision for the region, however, one must be careful to not ‘bite more than we can chew’.

The region, he said, has witnessed military conflicts, civil wars, liberation movements, military dictatorships and challenges of insurgencies, religious fundamentalism, terrorism and poverty. Our neighbourhood continues to remain full of contradictions, disparities and paradoxes, he said.