Himadri Bose

Mao’s Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy delves into Mao’s initial efforts to build a naval force, tracing the development of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) between 1949 and 1950. It highlights how a group of individuals with no maritime experience managed to create an operational navy in just 18 months. Despite their lack of expertise, this nascent force undertook complex amphibious assaults, achieving significant victories in some cases while facing crushing defeats in others. Yoshihara, a distinguished scholar of the PLAN and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments offers fresh perspectives through his extensive use of Chinese sources.

• Himadri Bose |
• October-December 2025 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

• Himadri Bose |
• January-March 2024 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

Historically, navies have been employed for the conduct of trade warfare. However, naval discourse on the subject has ranged from advocacy as prime employment of naval power to relegation as a secondary role that is best avoided. World Wars I and II witnessed wide-ranging application of trade warfare with varying degrees of success. Global seaborne trade has transformed significantly since the great wars, with large merchant fleets servicing an interconnected and globalised trading system.

• Himadri Bose |
• January-March 2021 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

Ananth Krishan’s book, India’s China Challenge, is a notable examination of the challenge posed to India by the meteoric rise of China. Krishnan’s stay in China as a journalist for India Today and The Hindu, from 2008 to August 2018, and his knowledge of the Mandarin language have greatly enriched the depth of his examination of the subject. During his stay in China, he travelled to all but three of the country’s 33 provinces and regions, the China–India border in Tibet and Xinjiang, and the trading markets and factories of Guangdong.

• Himadri Bose |
• October-December 2020 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

The Russo-Japanese War was fought well over a hundred years ago and symbolised the rise of Japan, as it defeated Russia by executing a near-perfect limited war strategy. Japan incisively defined limited political objectives and calibrated its war strategy accordingly.

• Himadri Bose |
• July-September 2020 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

The Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) resurgence during the Meiji Restoration was challenged by the absence of maritime capability and an equivalent strategic underpinning. In turn, the IJN reached out to Western navies to develop its capability and establish its maritime moorings. The musings of Alfred Thayer Mahan served to fill this void. The IJN studied Mahan’s tenets and became particularly fixated on certain ideas which fuelled their tactics and hardened their war plans.

• Himadri Bose |
• January-June 2020 |
• Journal of Defence Studies