{"id":7236,"date":"2017-01-16T12:54:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/jwt2015\/?p=7236"},"modified":"2017-01-16T12:54:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:54:21","slug":"indias-army-revived-cold-start-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/studykit\/currentaffairs\/daily-articles\/indias-army-revived-cold-start-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"Has India\u2019s army revived its \u2018Cold Start\u2019 doctrine?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NEW DELHI: Recent remarks by India\u2019s new army chief General Bipin Rawat have raised questions if the country has revived its controversial \u2018Cold Start\u2019 doctrine for any future standoff with Pakistan, leading analysts wrote in The Hindu on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Gen Rawat had told India Today last week that the doctrine \u2014 instituted after a terrorist attack on Indian parliament in December 2001 \u2014 still existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cold Start doctrine exists for conventional military operations. Whether we have to conduct conventional operations for such strikes is a decision well-thought through, involving the government and the Cabinet Committee on Security,\u201d he said in the interview.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in the combined commanders\u2019 conference in 2015, said that future conflicts would become shorter, and wars would become rare. Did Gen Rawat have any strategy for short, intense wars?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our case, we prepare for short, intense conflicts, and at the same time have to be prepared for wars becoming long-drawn. Based on that, we have a well-defined strategy. What the PM said is right; wars will be intense and short because there\u2019ll always be international pressure in wars between two nations. We have to be aware of that; whatever action we take, therefore, has to be quick; forces have to be ready and have to achieve success.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their analysis, Walter C. Ladwig III, lecturer in international relations at the Department of War Studies, King\u2019s College, London, and Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the reference to \u2018Cold Start\u2019 raised vital questions. What did Gen Rawat mean by the phrase and was he \u201cauthorised to speak on the matter by the government?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many defence analysts presumed the army had abandoned this limited war concept altogether, or narrowly focussed on streamlining mobilisation while still maintaining the fundamental Strike Corps organisation and doctrinal concept, the analysts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither Gen Rawat has dispensed with 15 years of semantic gymnastics and simply referred to these \u201cproactive strategy options\u201d by their more common nomenclature, Cold Start, or, the Indian Army has been quietly reorganising its limited war concept along more aggressive, and offensive, lines with little fanfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hindu\u2019s analysis said the government should clarify Gen Rawat\u2019s statements. \u201cAmbiguity surrounding Cold Start, which incurred real diplomatic and security costs for India without delivering deterrence benefits, did not advance the country\u2019s interests when it was first announced, and such uncertainty is unhelpful today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2017<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW DELHI: Recent remarks by India\u2019s new army chief General Bipin Rawat have raised questions if the country has revived its controversial \u2018Cold Start\u2019 doctrine for any future standoff with Pakistan, leading analysts wrote in The Hindu on Thursday. Gen Rawat had told India Today last week that the doctrine \u2014 instituted after a terrorist …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5285],"tags":[6674],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}