DRAFTING STRATEGY ‘War is too important to be left to the generals’ - Georges Clemenceau[1] The quote above was made during World War-I but has been ingrained into the discourse of civil-military relations both in war and peace. Each side of this argument over the last 100 years has calcified…

“We make war that we may live in peace” — Aristotle[1] 1. ‘Why nations go to war’ is a seminal book into its 11th edition, transmitting an understanding of warfare from World War I to the present day by John G. Stoessinger. It is built around ten case studies, culminating…

1. Armed Forces have always sought “Swift Decisive Victory”. All plans /strategies or force application matrices are aimed at achieving a decisive victory, but in a modern hybrid Grey Zone escalatory continuum “Victory” may not be any more decisive but perceptional. I am sure when Putin launched special military operations…

1. Three major flash points of the world today Ukraine, South China Sea and AFPAK are victims of the hypothesis of ‘strategic depth’. Be it Pakistan, Russia or even China are obsessed with this idea of depth and has driven them to the wall and seemingly no exit possible or…

Dissuasion as a concept has made a late entry into the lexicon of military planners and commanders in India where it has been clubbed with another term ‘deterrence’ to articulate a strategic hypothesis of ‘dissuasive deterrence’. Before dwelling further into the strategic hypothesis itself it may be pertinent to clarify…

1. Nature of war remains unaltered and character of war continues to evolve has a fair degree of truism attached to this Clauswitzian adage. However, a movie I have enjoyed to re-watch and re-re-watch, Enemy at the Gates got me to think is the definition of this Gate. Vassili Zaetsev…

1. The famous idiom which we have got used to and brace for quite often is, ‘lull before the storm’ but the one which is holding true for last six days is ‘lull after the storm’. After committing all energies and efforts for last seventeen months a sense of relief…

1. In the aftermath of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on 27 Dec 07, thousands of angry protesters took to the streets in Pak, destroying and burning cars, trucks, trains, buses, govt offices, police stns and other state symbols. This rage was most potent in the Southern Sindh province…

1. We have often quoted Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) and in most cases when overburdened with work and envious of those without it. A colleague of mine sent me a message explaining the Price Law[1]. It quite made sense or maybe it was the novelty of learning something new that…