Missing: National security strategy

Context: Over the last seven years India has followed a familiar pattern to resolve national security crises but is unable to do it effectively.

Present pattern to resolve national security crises:

• The place and the extent of intrusion is not formally acknowledged
• The outcomes of the engagements are not put out in the public domain.
• The government's concern is that possible loss of territory is its fallout on domestic politics.

• The logic of differing perceptions argument is the escape route which endorses China’s stand, instead of calling China the initiator of the crisis.
• India negotiates from a position of weakness, so the concessions given are a cause of worry.

The logical approach needed for national security 

• Strategic review: to establish the present and future security challenges to evolve a comprehensive national security strategy. 

• It needs to be formalized and put under parliamentary scrutiny.
• Unclassified aspects must be put in the public domain.

• Starting point for security planning: Is the national security strategy because it formally spells out the vision to tackle the threats faced. 
• Spells out the capabilities: required in terms of force levels, technology, and structures. 

• The military works out the details, the government allocates the financial resources. 

• Moving away from a functional approach: Need to create a military to fight the war of the 21st-century instead of doing incremental changes. 
• Political guidance: in the national security strategy.
• A modern approach to defense planning is needed.
• Delinking national security from domestic politics.

Conclusion: The government needs to take the opposition, the media, and the public into confidence, and apply the security principle of need-to-know so that the nation can present a united front.