India's Strategic Environment and the Role of Military Power

IMGXYZ517IMGZYX Indian Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi began his remarks on “India’s Strategic Environment and the Role of the Military” by highlighting that there are two Indias that we see today: a resurgent, politically stable and economically booming India on one hand; and a poor India that is struggling to break the poverty barriers on the other. He emphasized that India is trying to break out of centuries of poverty and the primary goal of India is economic progress. He argued that no economic growth is possible without peace and stability, and no peace and stability is possible, in turn, without military power. Therefore, according to him, India’s military power will have to play a crucial role within India’s strategic environment in the next 20-25 years to ensure peace and stability and thus, ensure India’s sustained economic growth.

ACM Tyagi divided India’s strategic environment into the external and the internal parts. On the external front, he identified two key strands: 1) political instability in India’s immediate neighborhood; and 2) the presence of various nuclear powers in the region. He pointed out that the political systems in almost all of India’s neighbors are not stable and it is hard to predict what kind of political systems would ultimately take root in these countries. While India’s democratic parliamentary system with all its imperfections continues to function in a stable manner, the same cannot be said about most countries in India’s immediate neighborhood. In his opinion, the political systems of India’s neighbors are either in flux or under severe strain, whether it is Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. Clearly, the jury was out on what shape and form the political systems in these countries would take. From India’s point of view of maintaining peace and stability and economic growth, he suggested that an established democratic political system in the region was clearly in India’s interests, since it is widely believed that when there is an established democratic tradition, generally speaking, peace prevails. He clarified that India did not want to enforce or sell democracy but simply wanted to see more democracy in its region.

The second key aspect of India’s external environment to be noted was that India was in a region where three nuclear powers- India, China and Pakistan- operated, along with other nuclear powers. Thus, besides the political instability, nuclear arms were a key element of India’s strategic environment.

On the internal front, he highlighted the significant threat posed to India by a great amount of non-state actors. Noting that terrorism not only threatened the peace and stability of India and its region but also countries across the world, he pointed out that there are political systems that are either unwilling or unable to deal with these elements. Since peace and stability are the key ingredients for sustained economic growth, and terrorism seems to threaten this very peace and stability in the region, it was critical to address this issue. He was also quick to point out that the US shared practically the same concerns on terrorism as India and there was a congruence of views between the US and India.

Turning his attention to the new, resurgent India, ACM Tyagi was optimistic that India’s high growth rates would be maintained in the coming years. He argued that as India experiences rapid economic growth, economic security and trade security will be increasingly more important. In other words, geo-economics, rather than geopolitics, will become the priority. The new threats to India will involve threats to its economic interests, and this in turn will imply that India would have to forget geographical boundaries and actually prepare itself to protect its interests even beyond its geographical borders.

The other security implication of India’s economic resurgence would be in the arena of energy security. As India’s energy needs grow dramatically, India’s basic security interest would clearly lie in ensuring a free, uninterrupted flow of energy to fuel its economic growth. Highlighting again the convergence of interests with the US in its quest for energy security, ACM Tyagi emphasized that the Indian military’s role in providing energy trade security would be critical.

Tyagi clarified that his remarks about the need for ensuring economic security beyond India’s geographical borders should not be taken out of context to imply any grandiose hegemonic plans. Rather, he highlighted India’s track record in the international arena and argued that the Indian armed forces had always played a very responsible role in international conflicts, often as part of UN peacekeeping forces. He conceded, however, that the role of India’s military was increasing and that it has recently played crucial roles in disaster relief and disaster management in various countries including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines and even the US in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Thus, he envisioned that military diplomacy would be one of the key roles of the military in the coming years.

In conclusion, ACM Tyagi made the case that India, with its impeccable track record, should be an active participant in matters of international security. He hoped that all countries, like India, would continue to seek to live peacefully with each other in the future. Only in such an undisturbed, peaceful environment would India be able to grow economically.

Q&A

During the Q& A session that followed, ACM Tyagi pointed out that India’s armed forces were cooperating extensively with other militaries in the region including the US, Singapore and Japan. He emphasized that the security interests of India and the US coincide- both are firm believers of democracy, free flow of energy and ensuring peace and stability around the world. Asked to clarify his comments on his remarks about operating outside India’s geographical boundaries, ACM Tyagi clarified that all militaries already operated beyond their boundaries, citing examples of India’s participation in military exercises with different countries as well as humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the Tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan, etc.

On the question of handling terrorism, ACM Tyagi noted that the Indian armed forces have been dealing with the scourge of terrorism for over half a century now and have consequently evolved and adapted to deal with the unique nature of terrorism and asymmetrical warfare. He did not foresee any major structural changes in the organizational structure of the Indian armed forces, though he did admit that they were being restructured to deal with international threats, especially ones that operated beyond India’s geographical boundaries.

Asked if China constituted a threat to India and if so, what capabilities was India seeking to acquire to address such a threat, ACM Tyagi mentioned that as military men, the Indian military forces have been taught to look at capabilities, rather than intentions. In this context, the Indian military continues to prepare itself for all military contingencies, even though relations with China are looking great at the moment. He admitted that the Indian military was thinking about China and keeping a close watch on China’s growing military strength. He added that the lack of transparency in China’s military budgets and planning made military calculations more difficult and demanded preparation for all scenarios. He concluded by saying that while the Indians were not concerned about China per se, they were definitely watching its rise.

On the India-US nuclear deal, he emphasized that the key thing to note was that India had pursued this deal not to enhance its nuclear weapons arsenal but to ensure its energy security needs in the future. He argued that India had chosen the plutonium route under the leadership of Homi Bhabha and that energy needs were the driving force behind the deal, and not any desire to acquire greater amounts of uranium. On the ties between India’s and Iran’s air forces, ACM Tyagi noted that there was very little interaction between the air forces of the two countries especially since Iran no longer had a highly advanced Air Force. He brushed aside criticism that India was allying closely with the US at the expense of its relationship with Iran, stressing that India wanted to maintain good relations with all its neighbors including Iran though the “good or decent relations” would be defined based on the situation.

This event report was prepared by Anirudh Suri, Junior Fellow in the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment.