Establishing India’s Military Readiness Concerns and Strategy

Harinder Singh

IDSA Monograph Series No. 5

Military readiness is perhaps one of the least studied and understood concepts in the field of strategic studies. In the absence of any significant literature in the public domain, defence policy makers and practitioners worldwide tend to define military readiness in several different ways. This often results in readiness assessments that are either too narrow or too broad. An analytical framework to assess levels of military readiness at the national level against well defined criteria therefore becomes a critical policy imperative.