Dr Rajiv Nayan is Senior Research Associate at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Click here for detailed profile.
As the focus and priority of the international community in recent years have been on averting nuclear terrorism and nuclear accidents, the nuclear experience of synergising safety and security can be highly useful in combating threats like COVID-19.
Senior Research Associate, IDSA, Dr. Rajiv Nayan’s article, titled ‘Rebalancing Economic Inequality and Security’ has been published in the special issue (The Continuing Menace of 50 years) of Defence and Security Alert, in August 2019.
This book explores what military strategy is and how it is interconnected with policy on one hand and military operations on the other. In the process, it traces the transformation of the notion of strategy from its original military moorings to a more policy-oriented and-influenced conception and elaborates upon a tripartite framework of policy, strategy and doctrine to think about, understand, and analyse the use of force. The book explores the politics of India-Pakistan conflict in order to root the study of Indian military strategy in the political sphere. It discusses three main issues that have ensured the persistence of conflict: incompatible national identities, Pakistan's congenital quest for parity with and compulsion to challenge India, and irreconcilable positions on the Kashmir issue. The book argues that India has invariably pursued limited political aims that did not threaten Pakistan's survival or form of government or regime in power albeit containing a counter offensive elements. It states that India employed the strategy of exhaustion during the Indian Army's campaigns in the 1947-48 conflict and 1965 war, which made way to strategy of annihilation during the 1971 war (East Pakistan), but after Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapons capability the strategy is back to exhaustion. The book highlights the importance of designing an overall military strategy for waging limited war and pursuing carefully calibrated political and military objectives by creatively combining the individual doctrines of the three services by establishing a Chief of Defence Staff system.
The 1998 nuclear tests conducted by India heralded yet another nuclear age. The instant response of a section of the international community was highly pessimistic. It foresaw regional instability, collapse of the global nuclear order and serious crisis in the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. As a result, overlooking India’s security imperatives, a number of countries reacted with hostility against the Indian nuclear tests. Even international organisations were mobilised against India.
May 11, 2018, marks the twentieth anniversary of the Shakti-series of tests. In 1998, India conducted five nuclear tests on May 11 and 13. The government stated that in the five tests, advanced weapon designs had been tested. On May 11, declared as the National Technology Day, the three tested devices were of 45-kilotons thermonuclear, 15-kilotons fission and 0.2 sub-kiloton yields. On May 13, India continued the testing of nuclear devices. Both the tests were of the sub-kiloton yields—0.5 and 0.3. These tests heralded India as a nuclear weapon state.
Senior Research Associate, IDSA, Dr Rajiv Nayan’s article on Indo-China border issue, titled ‘In the eye of the storm’ was published in The Tribune on January 1, 2018.
Senior Research Associate, IDSA, Dr Rajiv Nayan's article on Syrian Chemical Attack, titled ‘Syrian attack: Chemical Crisis to Humanity’, was published in the in the March 19-26, 2017 issue of ‘Organiser’.
Senior Research Associate, IDSA, Dr Rajiv Nayan's article, ‘Comprehensive Review of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540’ appeared in the 1540 Compass, issue 11, Winter 2016, published by Center for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia and the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs.
Senior Research Associate, IDSA, Dr Rajiv Nayan’s article on Indo-Japan civil nuclear deal, titled, ‘Indo-Japan civil nuclear deal: Despite the anti-nuclear test stance, it's a win-win for all’ was published by Firstpost on November 12, 2016.
India’s ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Doctrine
The Defence Minister’s recent statement on ‘no first use’ basically underlines the fact that India’s current nuclear doctrine is working well.