Assessing the Compatibility of Conventional Military Doctrines With the Changing Character of War: A Case of Indo-Pak Rivalry

Abstract

Military doctrines integrate and encourage armed forces to pursue their strategic objectives while acting as an instrument to forestall conflicts by retaining credible deterrence. However, the acquisition of nuclear weapons and access to sophisticated technologies have significantly changed the character of warfare, adding layers to the complexity. This strategic shift has resulted in the diversification of sub-conventional warfare in the subcontinent, blurring the line between war and peace. In the case of Indo-Pak rivalry, non-contact warfare has gained currency, yet both states continue to prioritize conventional military doctrines when engaging each other in sub-conventional domain. Furthermore, this article argues that the compatibility of conventional military doctrines with the changing character of warfare is uncertain, and this is a topic of debate that merits through investigation and analysis.

Keywords

India Pakistan military doctrines non-contact warfare war rivalry South Asia character of war nature of war

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ahmed

(2012) Cold start: the life cycle of a doctrine. Comparative Strategy 31(5): 453–468.

Ali

(2015) An overview of Indo-Pak military doctrines. Daily Times, 18 September. Available at: https://dailytimes.com.pk/98383/an-overview-of-indo-pak-military-doctrines/

Andersson

Mukherjee

(2021) Seeking no war, achieving no peace: the conflict over the Siachen Glacier. Defence and Peace Economics 32(3): 253–270.

Basrur

(2020) India’s Pakistan problem: operation Parakram revisited. India Review 18(5): 503–519.

Bell

Macdonald

(2019) How dangerous was Kargil? Nuclear crises in comparative perspective. The Washington Quarterly 42(2): 135–148.

Chapman

(2009) Military Doctrine: A Reference Handbook. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Chaudhuri

(2021) War and Peace in Contemporary India. London: Routledge.

Chin

(2019) Technology, war and the state: past, present and future. International Affairs 95(4): 765–783.

Cimbala

(2012) Clausewitz and Escalation: Classical Perspective on Nuclear Strategy. London: Routledge.

10.

Clary

Narang

(2019) India’s counterforce temptations: strategic dilemmas, doctrine, and capabilities. International Security 43(3): 7–52.

11.

Cohen

Dasgupta

(2013) Arming Without Aiming: India’s Military Modernization. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

12.

Coker

(2017) Rebooting Clausewitz: “On War” in the Twenty-First Century. London: Oxford University Press.

13.

Dixit

(2003) India-Pakistan in War and Peace. London: Routledge.

14.

Drew

Snow

(2019) Making Twenty-First-Century Strategy: An Introduction to Modern National Security Processes and Problems. Montgomery, AL: Air University Press.

15.

Freedman

(2019) The rise and fall of great power wars. International Affairs 95(1): 101–117.

16.

Ganguly

Kapur

(2012) India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia. New York: Columbia University Press.

17.

Ganguly

Wagner

(2010) India and Pakistan: bargaining in the shadow of nuclear war. Journal of Strategic Studies 27(3): 479–507.

18.

Gray

(1997) Postmodern War: The New Politics of Conflict. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

19.

Hagerty

(2019) Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence Stability in South Asia. Basingstoke: Springer.

20.

Høiback

(2015) The anatomy of doctrine and ways to keep it fit. Journal of Strategic Studies 39(2): 185–197.

21.

Howard

(2009) War in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

22.

Hussain

Shahzad

Saud

(2021) Analyzing the state of digital information warfare between India and Pakistan on twittersphere. SAGE Open 11(3): 215824402110319.

23.

Iqbal

Hussain

(2018) Indo-Pakistani wars (1948–1948, 1965, 1971, 1999). Journal of Political Studies 25(1): 139–156.

24.

Islam

TMT

Newhouse

Yanez-Pagans

(2021) International comparisons of poverty in South Asia. Asian Development Review 38(1): 142–175.

25.

Jackson

(2013) The Roots of Military Doctrine: Change and Continuity in Understanding the Practice of Warfare. London: Military Studies Press.

26.

Jensen

(2016a) Escaping the iron cage: the institutional foundations of FM 3-24. Counterinsurgency doctrine. Journal of Strategic Studies 39(2): 213–230.

27.

Jensen

(2016b) Forging the Sword: Doctrinal Change in the U.S. Army. Stanford, CA: Stanford Security Studies.

28.

Joshi

(2013) India’s military instrument: a doctrine stillborn. Journal of Strategic Studies 36(4): 512–540.

29.

Joshi

O’Donnell

(2018) India and Nuclear Asia: Forces, Doctrine, and Dangers. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

30.

Kalyanaraman

(2008) Operation Parakram: an Indian exercise in coercive diplomacy. Strategic Analysis 26(4): 478–492.

31.

Khan

(2021 [2020]) India’s Evolving Deterrent Force Posturing in South Asia: Temptation for Pre-Emptive Strikes, Power Projection, and Escalation Dominance. London: Springer.

32.

Kier

(1997) Imagining War: French and British Military Doctrine Between the Wars. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

33.

Krepinevich

(1994) Cavalry to computer: the pattern of military revolutions. The National Interest 37: 31–43.

34.

Krepon

White

Thompson

, et al. (eds) (2015) Deterrence Instability & Nuclear Weapons in South Asia. Washington, DC: Stimson Center.

35.

Kretchik

(2021) Us Army Doctrine: From the American Revolution to the War on Terror. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

36.

Kuchay

(2020) EU NGO report uncovers Indian disinformation campaign. Al Jazeera, 10 December. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/11/eu-ngo-report-uncovers-a-15-year-disinformation-campaign (accessed 28 November 2023).

37.

Ladwig

(2008) A cold start for hot wars? The Indian army’s new limited war doctrine. International Security 32(3): 158–190.

38.

Liebl

(2009) India and Pakistan: competing nuclear strategies and doctrines. Comparative Strategy 28(2): 154–163.

39.

Marie

(2018) South Asia Regional Rivalry Between India-Pakistan: Tit-For-Tat in Cyberspace. Zürich: Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich.

40.

Masood

(2021) Arms race and emerging global military trends. The Express Tribune, 27 October. Available at: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2326510/arms-race-and-emerging-global-military-trends

41.

Matinuddin

(2002) The Nuclearization of South Asia. New York: Oxford University Press.

42.

Miller

(2013) The Foundations of Modern Terrorism: State, Society and the Dynamics of Political Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

43.

Mishra

Ahmed

(2014) Cooperative measures to support the Indo-Pak agreement reducing risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons. Available at: https://www.sandia.gov/app/uploads/sites/148/2021/07/sand2014-2607-2.pdf

44.

Mitra

(2001) War and peace in South Asia: a revisionist view of India-Pakistan relations. Contemporary South Asia 10(3): 361–379.

45.

Muhammad

(2019) Cyber threat landscape and readiness challenge of Pakistan. Strategic Studies 39(1): 1–19.

46.

Mustafa

(2015) South Asian nuclear thresholds: repercussions of cold start doctrine and tactical nuclear weapons. Strategic Studies 35(2): 47–70.

47.

Narang

(2017) Strategies of nuclear proliferation: how states pursue the bomb. International Security 41(3): 110–150.

48.

Nisser

(2021) Implementing military doctrine: a theoretical model. Comparative Strategy 40(3): 305–314.

49.

O’Donnell

Ghoshal

(2018) Managing Indian deterrence: pressures on credible minimum deterrence and nuclear policy options. The Nonproliferation Review 25(5–6): 419–436.

50.

Posen

(2016) Foreword: military doctrine and the management of uncertainty. Journal of Strategic Studies 39(2): 159–173.

51.

Purayil

(2022) India and the Balakot airstrike: reflections beyond hard power. Comparative Strategy 41(1): 46–59.

52.

Sagan

(2009) Inside Nuclear South Asia. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.

53.

Salik

(2017) Learning to Live With the Bomb: Pakistan: 1998–2016. New York: Oxford University Press.

54.

Sankaran

(2015) Pakistan’s battlefield nuclear policy: a risky solution to an exaggerated threat. International Security 39(3): 118–151.

55.

Singh

(2016) Manohar Parrikar questions India’s no-first use nuclear policy, adds “my thinking.” The Indian Express, 11 November. Available at: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/manohar-parrikar-questions-no-first-use-nuclear-policy-adds-my-thinking-4369062/

56.

Slensvik

Ydstebø

(2016) The Norwegian joint operational doctrine as a case: heritage, content, process. Journal of Strategic Studies 39(2): 297–314.

57.

Sridharan

(2020) The India-Pakistan Nuclear Relationship: Theories of Deterrence and International Relations. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.

58.

Statement by Shri Jaswant Singh in Indian Parliament Lok Sabha (2011) 15th Series, vol. XVI, Seventh Session, 2011/1932, 15 March, p.114.

59.

Tian

Kuimova

da Silva

DPL

, et al. (2020) Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2020. Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

60.

Weissmann

Ahlström

(2019) Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most offensive of them all?—Explaining the offensive bias in military tactical thinking. Defence Studies 19(2): 170–188.

61.

Weissmann

Nilsson

Thunholm

, et al. (2021) Hybrid Warfare: Security and Asymmetric Conflict in International Relations. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

62.

Wolf

(2017) Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism in South Asia. In: Casaca

Wolf

(eds) Terrorism Revisited. London: Springer, pp.109–155.