New Delhi: The geopolitical landscape is facing unprecedented changes and today nations have shown the willingness to use hard power, the Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, said at the maiden NDTV Defence Summit this week.
The Army chief said the “Centrality of national interest and the growing salience of national security in the international system are distinctly visible. Today nations have shown willingness to resort to the use of heart power to secure their interest and there is a situation of return to conflict to achieve political and military objectives,” adding, “While conventional warfare has changed, emerging technologies today are not central only to rich nations and disruptive technology is transforming warfare.”
“Access to modern technologies is not limited to superpowers but non-state actors can access such technology. The asymmetry in conflict has increased the risk of a fallout with an increased propensity of risk-taking behavior to initiate a low-threshold armed conflict,” the army chief said.
General Pande said, “Our legacy challenges of unsettled borders continue and newer threats in the spectrum of conflict have added complexity and the grey zone actions and aggressions from adversaries are manifesting across domains – Land, sea, and air.”
General Pande stressed the fact that we need to secure our national interest and the focus should be on possessing capabilities that require continuous progression. Highlighting the vision of the Army, the General said, the Indian Army, a land-based force, has to transform into an agile, future-ready force that can operate in a multi-domain environment and have synergy with other forces. These elements are important for the force to be future-ready.
