Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi

I would like to thank Shri Sanjeev Chopra, Director General of ATI, West Bengal for inviting me to interact with the IAS officers from different states. IAS officers play a crucial role in the policy making, implementation, coordination and monitoring. It is necessary that they should have a broad perspective of national goals, priorities, values and systems and institutions. That is why the government organizes such courses.

Quite often people distinguished between national security and socio-economic development. This is a false binary. The two are closely interlinked. One cannot exist without the other. Traditionally, security has been understood in terms of the defence of territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. This job is entrusted to military forces. However, the concept of national security has been broadened to include non-traditional, softer aspects of security, like health of the economy, terrorism, technology, cyber security, food, energy and water security, health and education and climate change etc. Environmental factors also exert tremendous influence on a country. The emergence of climate change as an existence threat to mankind is changing the traditional national security discourse. The definition of security is now more defused. This makes it difficult to device comprehensive strategies for national security. National security encompasses both the harder and softer aspect of security.

History and geography are powerful and long term drivers of a country security. Geo-politics, regional power equation and internal political dynamic have a significant impact on national security.

The Expanding Notion of National Security

• The notion of national security has gradually been broadened to include non-military aspects. 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 recognised 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, radicalisation, 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.
• Globalisation 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 globalisation and technological changes. International convention 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 conceptualise 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 prioritisation 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 Key National Security Challenges

• In order to appreciate India’s national security challenges, one must first understand India’s history, geography, economy, society and culture. National security is rooted in these factors.
• Historically, India has been an unbroken civilisation with 5000 years of continuous history. India has highly developed knowledge system much before any other country.
• India has also housed vast amount of diversity in people, belief and faith, language and behavior. This diversity is connected by a common cultural thread. Maintaining unity in diversity and harmony has been a challenge.
• India was the richest country of the world for thousands of years. Even up to the 17th Century, India accounted for nearly 30-40 percent of global GDP. This factor remains a permanent feature of India’s national security.
• India’s geographic location makes it vulnerable to external invasions. India has been invaded multiple time in history from land and sea. Before the advent of industrial revolution, foreigners from less rich countries often attacked India.
• Portege opened the way for European colonisation of India. We are still living with the long-term impact of that development. Many of our problems of today are rooted in our colonial experience.
• 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 lines, 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 1949 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 radicalisation of the youth.
• India has managed the internal security problems by strengthening democracy and improving governance. India is a land of elections. General elections are held every five years. Every year, some state or the other goes to elections. 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 institutions 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 one way or the other, deal with national security challenges.
• India has also set up a National Security Council (NSC) headed by the Prime Minister and serviced by the National Security Advisor, to bring coordination amongst diverse national security institutions. The NSC is an advisory body. This became necessary because of the democratic set up of government is 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, and the China-Pakistan Nexus. On the internal security front, the challenge is to settle the various insurgencies including the left-wing extremism, to deal with cross border terrorism and the 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 projects.