Talk on ‘National Security’ to Somalian Diplomats, The Foreign Service Institute, 28 May 2018

Factors affecting National Security

• History and geography are powerful, long-term drivers of a country’s understanding of its security. Geopolitics, regional power equation as well as internal political dynamic have a significant impact on the security of a country.
• A country’s location is a primary factor in determining its security. It is instructive to read Robert Kaplan’s the Revenge of Geography to understand how a country is a hostage to its location. The ideas of Mckinder and Mahan are still relevant as they explains how geographical factors underpin global politics on large time scales.
• Similarly, the historic experience of a country also reflects its attitude to its security. The notion that history repeats itself is still respected by the analysts. The rise and fall of civilization is a common thing in the historic experience of the nation.
• Environmental factors also exert tremendous influence on the evolution of a country. The emergence of climate change as an existential threat is changing the traditional notion of national security. The opening up of the north passage in the Artic Sea due to the melting of the ice cover is an example of the influence of global warming on international politics and international security.

The Expanding Notion of National Security
• The notion of national security has gradually been broadened to include non-military aspect. The US Secretary General’s High panel of experts gave a report in 2004 on the new security challenges for the world. Six clusters of threats were recognized by the panel. Since then more dimensions have been included.
• The boundaries between the traditional and non-traditional, the military and the non-military aspects of security have been blurred. Good governance, economic stability, climate change, terrorism, radicalization, environmental and ecological protection, human migrations, drug trafficking, maritime piracy, food, energy and water security, gender issues are as much a part of the expanding scope of national security as sovereignty issues.
• Globalization has promoted cross-border linkages. Today finance, transport, communication etc. are seamless across the border. This has weakened the capacity of nation states to deal with security challenges.
• International regime to deal with the challenges of security have not kept pace with globalization and technological changes. International conventions are difficult to negotiate and even more difficult to implement.
• With the notion of national security having become so large and defused, it has become difficult to deal with national security issues effectively.
• Security has no single definition. This makes it difficult to conceptualize the notion of security and construct a frame work to deal with it.
• At the same time, every country faces the constraints of capacity. This is also the challenge of prioritization of limited resources that are available to a country. Spending too much on military could be at the expense of development and governance. Every country has to make its own decisions.
• A Crafting the appropriate institution to tackle security challenges is a problem by itself. Very often, security challenges are multi-dimensional cutting across numerous discipline. The problem of balance among different intuitions and coordination has to be resolved. Each country does this in its own unique way.

India’s Experience on dealing with National Security

India has unique characteristic which define its security parameters:-
• India is an unbroken civilization with five thousand years of continuous history. It had highly developed knowledge system in political, economic, philosophy, literature, science, mathematics, medicine and other domains which have influence the evolution of the mankind.
• Over the millennia, India has come to represent vast amount of diversity in its people, their beliefs and faiths, language and behavior. These diverse set of people are connected by a common cultural thread. Maintaining the unity in diversity is a challenge.
• At one point of time, India was the richest country in the world. Europe was in dark ages and the America had not been discovered. Even up to the 17th century, the combined GDP of China and India was to the tune of 70 percent of global GDP (estimates by Angus Madison and others). India’s advanced civilization and fabulous riches attracted outsiders. This became a security concern. A large number of invaders have invaded India over the year through land and sea.
• India’s geographic location makes it vulnerable to external invasions. The Greeks, the Arabs, the Turks, the Afghans, the Persians have invaded India from the west. The Himalayas in the north provided some security. However, the Ocean in the west and south also became a vulnerability when the Indian maritime capabilities declined. The Portuguese took advantage and opened the way for the colonizers to come into India.
• The British followed their own geopolitical interests and carved out boundaries which protected them from Russia, China and other rivals. In 1947, they divided the Indian sub-continent on purely arbitrary line, creating Pakistan on the basis of a pernicious two nation theory. India-Pakistan problem is the result of that arbitrary division.
• Another major development took place in 1951 when China occupied Tibet. This removed a buffer between India and China. The two countries became neighbours. A huge, complicated boundary dispute came into being. This un-resolved boundary question continue to cast a shadow India-China relations.
• As a result of these development – the creation of Pakistan and the occupation of Tibet by China – India has fought five wars in the last 70 years.
• China and Pakistan have also developed a close nexus. China has supplied Pakistan nuclear and missile technology clandestinely and continues to do so. Pakistan has gifted to China some part of Jammu and Kashmir territory which is an integral part of India.
• India has 7500 Km of coast line which is vulnerable. The terrorists who perpetrated the terror attack in Mumbai came from Karachi in Pakistan to Mumbai. The safety and security of the coast line is a major security concern.
• India has 15000 Km of land boundary with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Border management is a key component of India’s national security matrix.
• Given its diversity, it not surprising that India has had internal security challenges as well. The cross-border terrorism and proxy war promoted by Pakistan has been going on since 1947. Some parts of north-eastern region of India have also seen insurgency against the Indian states. In central India, a leftist inspired insurgency has been going on for the past 50 years. Terrorism supported from across the border is a major security concern. Global Jihad has also had an impact on India in terms of the radicalization of the youth.
• India has managed the internal security problems by strengthening democracy and improving governance. India is a land of election. General elections are held every five year. Every year, some state or the other goes for election. The exercise of democracy is free and fair. In the recent years there has been a substantial focus on growth, development and inclusivity. This gives strength to India to deal with its national security challenges.
• India over the years has developed a large number of strong institution to deal with national security challenges. These includes global engagement and regional cooperation, public diplomacy and India’s participation in global governance. At the same time India has developed a strong military, a strong police, para-military forces, state police forces, boarder management institutions, defence production, defence R&D, capability in education and health etc. These institutions, on way or the other, deal with national security challenges.
• India has also set up a National Security Council headed by the Prime Minister and service by the National Security Advisor, to bring coordination amongst diverse National Security Institution. The NSC is an advisory body. This became necessary because of the democratic set up of government run by the principle of collective responsibility.
• India has ensured that its spending on defence remains low but sufficient. It spends 1.5 percent of his GDP on defence which is amongst the lowest in the world.

Conclusion

India is developing rapidly. It will soon become the third largest economy in the world. It has the challenge of dealing with complex security issues arising out of an unremitting hostility from Pakistan, an unsettled boundary dispute with China, the China-Pakistan Nexus. On the internal security front, the challenge is to settle the various insurgency including the left-wing extremism, to deal with cross border terrorism and Pakistan sponsored proxy war. India will need to ensure that its economic growth is inclusive and its social problems are tackled within a democratic framework. India has adopted a variety of approaches to deal with these problems. These approaches have by and large been successful. Appropriate institutions are being built to deal with the national security issues in a systematic fashion. The availability of resources is always a tricky question. Continued economic growth will hopefully provide the necessary resources for national security project.