Journal of Defence Studies

India’s Role in UN Peacekeeping Operations

The basic role of the armed forces is to defend the country against external aggression and to protect it from internal threat when its ‘national security’ is jeopardised. Apart from carrying out these functions, in the seven decades of independence, the Indian Armed Forces have been actively participating in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations.

India and UN Peacekeeping in Africa: An Assessment

Over the last seven decades, United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs) have helped several countries across the world to move away from the path of conflict. Africa has been a significant region for deployment of the United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, often known as ‘the blue helmets’. Out of the 12 ongoing UNPKOs, six are located in Africa.1 They include Western Sahara (MINURSO), Mali (MINUSMA), Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Central African Republic (MINUSCA), South Sudan (UNMISS) and Abyei (UNISFA), a disputed border area between Sudan and South Sudan.

Ruchita Beri |
July-September 2022 |
Journal of Defence Studies

Against All Odds: The Forgotten Tales of Independent India’s Tryst with Peacekeeping

There is a part of history that many in India are not familiar with today. This article is an account of Independent India’s first overseas mission under the UN – The unique role that the Indian military played in the Korean conflict.

Nation-building: A Case for Armed Forces in Post-conflict Peacebuilding

Indian peacekeeping forces have served the cause of international peacekeeping for over 70 years and have logged not just an enviable record doing so, but have garnered a huge bank of institutional knowledge on post-conflict transitions. With the country on the cusp of becoming a power centre in the international comity of nations, it is imperative to recognise and utilise this knowledge for the armed forces to contribute to nation-building. The author argues for an enhanced role for the armed forces in post-intervention and fragile transition governance operations.

India–US Peacekeeping Cooperation

Both India and the United States (US) have a long history of supporting the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UN PKOs). Over the last two decades, the two countries have significantly expanded cooperation in peacekeeping operations to advance the purposes and principles of UN peacekeeping. In this regard, India and US established a Joint Working Group (JWG) on PKOs to deepen cooperation on peacekeeping issues. They have partnered with African countries to build and enhance the capacity of African troops to help them effectively participate in the UN PKOs.

Saroj Bishoyi |
July-September 2022 |
Journal of Defence Studies

Four Decades of UNIFIL: Mandates, Contributions and Challenges

Established in 1978 with the objective of ensuring Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been a key factor in maintaining stability along the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon since then. There are divergent views on the achievements of the mission after more than four decades of its deployment.

Uniformed Women in UN Peacekeeping Operations: An Assessment of India’s Contribution

The defect in the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 has occurred by viewing rationales for increasing uniformed women peacekeepers from the instrumentalist perspective. The slow rate of increase in uniformed women peacekeepers is not solely because of the low contribution by developing countries.

Yeshi Choedon |
July-September 2022 |
Journal of Defence Studies

Multidimensional Peacekeeping Protection Mandate and Recalibration of the UN Military Peacekeepers

The United Nations has introduced a layered approach to UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) with wide-ranging enablers based on many reviews. Accordingly, a new resolution on the protection of civilians (POC) was adopted by the UN Security Council in 1999. The study attempts to understand the complexities of multidimensional PKOs, POC, 2019 policy, specific role of the UN military force and the need for new structuring and training of the UN military presence in the mission areas.

Assessment of India’s UN Missions and Impact on Host Nations

Multifunctional peace operations under the umbrella of United Nations (UN) have become an integral part of the global society to the extent that they are now one of the major regulating institutions of international relations.

Sino-Russian Cooperation and Competition in Central Asia

The Central Asian region with its five post-Soviet republics is geopolitically important for its proximity to Afghanistan, West Asia, China, Russia and the Caucasus. These republics have been wooed by many powers keen to gain access to their rich resources. Russia, the regional hegemon has been slipping in the economic domain, while China’s fortunes and national power are on the rise. This article seeks to examine the standing of these two powers that are both cooperating and competing in Central Asia and suggest the way ahead for India

Combat Stress in Conflicts: Home and Abroad

International peacekeeping operations have been one of the hallmark developments in the post-Cold War era. While it is true that these operations started almost immediately after the end of World War II, they really gathered momentum post the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989. The shadow of veto by warring permanent members gave way to cooperation and greater consensus emerged to solve the world’s problems in trouble spots through United Nations (UN)-led multinational peacekeeping operations. The UN peacekeeping has a long but checkered history.

Belarus: Russia’s Cat’s Paw

Belarus has managed to escape the scanner of major countries reserved for rogue nations despite blatant violations of the laid-down international rules. Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, despite his moral credentials badly shaken after trumped up elections in 2020 still seems to be holding firm ground due to the unstinted support offered by Russia, an acknowledged military powerhouse.

Recalling Air Power in the Indian Context

With the announcement of the proposed theaterisation of the existing structure of the armed forces, there have been numerous exchanges of ideas, formal and informal discourses, official and unofficial exchange of views and perspectives in recent months. During such exchanges, a standpoint of equating the Air Force of a nation with the Artillery has emerged and it requires to be put in a proper perspective. Indian military history has unfortunately not highlighted the lethality and importance of air power, which is the root cause for incorrect understanding of air power.

About the Genomic Origin and Direct Source of the Pandemic Virus

The debate over the genomic origin and direct source of the pandemic virus has intensified due to recent analyses concerning activities that had taken place in Wuhan prior to the initial outbreak and thereafter. Revisiting various aspects which are related to this development appears to be imperative, as certain early indications seem to converge with those analyses, while other recent analyses are contradictory.

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Return of the Old Giant to Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific has evolved into a major geopolitical realm, drawing the attention of key regional and non-regional players. The announcement of AUKUS—a security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US)—on 15 September 2021 has added a significant aspect to the defence arrangement within the Indo-Pacific.

Formation of Reserve Components of the Indonesian Armed Forces: SWOT Analysis

The current as well as future dynamics of strategic environment are likely to face threats that are multidimensional in nature. Indonesia needs a total state defence system that integrates the capabilities of military and non-military. To actualise this ambition, Law No. 23 of 2019, along with Government Regulation No. 3 of 2021, is presently targeting the interests of the reserve components. This research analyses citizens’ role in the formulation of reserve components in land, sea, and air domains using Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis.

Minan Sinulingga , Goki Sihombing , Rendy Ananta Prasetya |
January-March 2022 |
Journal of Defence Studies

Institutions that Shaped India: DRDO, by Ravi Kumar Gupta

With India approaching the 75th year of independence in 2022, there are few institutions that can narrate the roller-coaster journey that the country has taken to become a modern nation. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a premier research and development (R&D) wing of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is one such institution. It is due to the persistent and painstaking efforts of DRDO that the country can hold its head high among the comity of nations in key defence and strategic technologies.

A Game Theoretic Analysis for Ladakh Standoff, 2020

A game theoretic analysis for Ladakh standoff is presented in this article. Starting with Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game, a more flexible game, known as De-escalation game is derived by incorporating the concepts of retaliation and non-escalation probabilities in the PD game. It is shown that by including these concepts, many new possibilities open up for India, which permit it to impose penalty on the aggressor.

Evaluating Jointness in the Indian Military: A Conceptual and Methodological Approach

The institutionalisation of jointness in the Indian military is a key driver of ongoing defence reforms. To attain this goal, the Indian Armed Forces are encapsulating principles of joint warfare, inhabiting joint capabilities and inculcating joint culture. However, the pace and process of jointness in the Indian military has been contentious since Independence. This article seeks to evaluate the state and nature of jointness in the Indian military by employing Jackson’s conceptual and methodological model for joint military activities.

Battle Ready for the 21st Century, edited by Lieutenant General A.K. Singh and Brigadier Narender Kumar

Currently and in the next 10–15 years in the Indian subcontinent, warfare is going to be based on multi-domain operations, including land, sea, air, space and information, with information warfare comprising essentially four components: psychological, electronic warfare, cyber and deception. Considering the military and nuclear capabilities of China and Pakistan, the chances of a full-scale conventional war are remote. Wars in the subcontinent will be mainly hybrid and linked to the use of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.