India must be prepared for wars of the future, unknown adversaries: NN Vohra

New Delhi, October 25

Calling on India’s security planners to be prepared for all kinds of threats, former Governor of Jammu & Kashmir NN Vohra pointed out that the future wars would no longer take place only with known adversaries.

Speaking at the release of the book “India’s National Security Challenges”, the former Governor drew attention to the emergence of a whole range of threats such as cyber, space, artificial intelligence and robotics.

“Due to these unknown adversaries, wars of the future will no longer be like those of the past. We have to safeguard our physical as well as national security,” he observed at the launch where the keynote address was delivered by former NSA Shivshankar Menon and moderated by India International Centre president and former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

“In our case without national security, we will have no economic development. If there is no growth, we will have very limited national security,” he cautioned. “We need to deter potential enemies… we need to be powerful enough, well organised enough to defeat the enemy,” he said while calling for a national security policy that is pragmatic, holistic, inclusive and cohesive. The former Governor also drew attention to the apparent lack of understanding between the Centre and states in matters of national security with states not being taken into adequate confidence. “When a crisis develops, instructions are given on the mobilisation that has to be done. That’s not good enough,” he said.

Menon endorsed Vohra’s observations about a lack of holistic approach towards national security due to which the government ends up with ad hoc approaches. There were three attempts in the past to produce a national security policy. In each case, he said the hesitation came from the political echelons.

“Strategy is an ends and means issue. If you agree on the ends, you have to provide the means, that’s where resistance comes in,” he said while confessing that he didn’t know how this logjam would be broken. The big advantage of a national security policy is that there will be elements of accountability in the management of defence, he pointed out.