Context

• After years of deliberations in the military and strategic community, India is in the process of bringing National Security Strategy.

• This is the first time that India would come out with such a strategy.

• The timeline for the completion of the strategy remains uncertain, although numerous ministries have already submitted their inputs to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) on various aspects of the comprehensive document.

National Security Strategy

1. A government document that outlines the country’s security objectives and methods to achieve them.
2. It addresses a wide range of threats, both traditional and non-traditional, providing a holistic view of national security and guiding defence and security policies.
3. This strategy helps shape a nation’s approach to military, economic, and diplomatic matters to protect its interests and ensure its security.

India’s need for a National Security Strategy

1. 1. Modern security threats and geopolitical uncertainties have prompted the need for this strategy.
   2. It has been proposed that a white paper on defense should be produced to elucidate India’s stance on significant defense matters while the national security strategy is being developed.
   3. This strategy is considered crucial for guiding military reforms in a coherent manner.

National Security Policy Framework

1. The exact contours (framework) of the strategy being drafted is not known.
2. However, it will likely include the entire range of newer challenges and modern threats facing India, including non-traditional ones such as:

Why did India never have a national security strategy?

1. Three previous efforts to formulate a national security strategy in India were thwarted, and political hesitancy appeared to be the main impediment.
2. Security experts suggest that the government may have been apprehensive about the increased accountability it would impose on defense management.
3. Various reasons have been proposed by strategic experts for India’s failure to develop a national security strategy in the past, including a lack of coordinated, whole-of-government collaboration, and potential reluctance on the government’s part to disclose its national security goals to the public.

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