Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Be proud of being an Indian, be proud of the great Indian Navy

During a recent gathering of my organization’s board, we spent some time touring the U.S. Navy SEAL training facility in Coronado, California. If you have ever been privileged to meet any SEALs, you will probably agree that, beyond their status as elite, highly trained military personnel, they are exemplary individuals in virtually every way – from intelligence and fitness to courage and humility. It’s not an accident. To become a SEAL, you have to endure training that pushes you to the absolute limit of human endurance. Because training a SEAL requires a very significant investment of both time and tax dollars, the Navy doesn’t want to accept people who aren’t a good fit. It’s looking for two qualities in particular that all successful SEALs have – perseverance and an ability to work with a team. How do they find out who has both attributes? Just three weeks into a 24-week training program all candidates go though “Hell Week.” During this incredibly grueling five-and-a-half-

Well meaning laws, if badly framed, can become a tool for extortion.  The Supreme Court has done well to build safeguards around Section 498-A , a provision of the law meant to target those guilty of dowry harassment – essentially to keep alive the basic principle of Indian jurisprudence that one is innocent until proven guilty. That principle is inverted by 498-A which makes dowry crime a cognizable and non-bailable offence. This has been interpreted to mean that anyone accused should be arrested the moment a complaint is registered. Given the ubiquity of marital quarrels and massive corruption among police forces everywhere in India, the extent of misuse of this provision    – for the sake of extortion or plain settling of scores — can easily be imagined. Neither should the issue be seen in a men vs women light. Because female relatives of a husband are equally liable to arrest in case of complaints against them. One is under threat not just if one is a married man but also i

USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) ( Image credits- Wikimedia commons/ United States Navy) In Shakespeare’s “ Romeo and Juliet ,” the latter states that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” What she fails to acknowledge, or perhaps she intentionally deceives her young and naïve paramour, is that while roses would have an olfactory appeal, they still have thorns. It is worth keeping this in mind when reading a recent article in  Proceedings  that advocates for a “ global network of navies ” – the most recent incarnation of the “1,000 ship navy” concept articulated in 2005 by then-Chief of Naval Operations Michael Mullen. The “1,000 ship navy” is a fleet-in-being of nations willing to respond to shared challenges, since no navy could “go it alone.” In the new  Proceedings  piece, current Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan Greenert and Rear Admiral James Foggo argue that the United States Navy must be “compelled to strengthen the bonds of international maritime cooperation” becaus

Chinese J-11 ( Image credits- Wikimedia commons/ United States DOD) Buried on page 40 of the Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military power is a brief mention of the YJ-12, a recent addition to China’s portfolio of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM). The report notes that, “The new missile provides an increased threat to naval assets, due to its long range and supersonic speeds.” True, but in an understated way. In fact, the YJ-12 is the most dangerous anti-ship missile China has produced thus far, posing an even greater risk to the U.S. Navy’s surface forces in the Western Pacific than the much-discussed DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. The arrival of the YJ-12 is one more indication of how the U.S. Navy is falling further behind in the missile competition against China, exposing flaws in operating concepts that U.S. and allied commanders and policymakers have relied on for years. According to a 2011 study that appeared in Naval War College Review, the YJ-12 ASCM h

Japanese Emperor with The Philippines President ( Image credits- Wikimedia commons) With a rising China eclipsing American influence in Asia, Japan has stepped up its efforts to rein in Beijing’s territorial ambitions. And President Aquino’s recent visit to Japan couldn’t be more timely. Despite the dangerous upsurge in maritime disputes between China, on one hand, and the Philippines and Vietnam, on the other, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) still struggles to forge a unified position on the South China Sea disputes. Given the lingering doubts over Washington’s commitment and wherewithal to counter China’s territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea, both Hanoi and Manila have predictably sought more assistance from like-minded powers such as Tokyo. In many ways, Japan has gradually re-emerged as a geopolitical counterweight to China – or, at least, this is what prime minister Shinzo Abe has in mind. Since his return to power in late-2012, Abe has

PSLV launch ISRO successfully launched it's work horse the venerable Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV). The PSLV C-23 launch successfully injected five foreign satellite into the orbit. This mission is crucial for ISRO as this launch was a commercial launch with only foreign payloads.    The 230-ton Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off at 9:52. The rocket's main luggage was the 714 kg French earth observation satellite SPOT-7. Piggybacking on the main luggage were the four small satellites viz: 14-kg AISAT of Germany; NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada each weighing 15 kg; and the 7-kg VELOX-1 of Singa pore. We would like to congratulate ISRO on this success and wishes them more success in coming years. May they reach greater heights and may they make India the predominant power in space and take India into the forefront of cutting edge space applications. Congratulations  once again to ISRO. 

India-China Border ( Image credits- Indian Express) Reacting strongly to reports that China has in its recent map shown Arunachal Pradesh as its territory, India on Saturday said "cartographic depiction" does not change reality on the ground and asserted that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of the country. Asked about recent China maps which show disputed areas in Arunachal Pradesh and South China Sea as its own, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said, "The cartographic depictions do not change the reality on the ground. "The fact that Arunachal Pradesh is integral and inalienable part of India has been conveyed to Chinese authority at several occasions including at the very highest level."  He also indicated that this may be raised by the Indian delegation, headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari, currently in China to participate in an event to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Panchsheel or Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

Image credits- Reuters/Ali Song This year has seen a spate of retrospective analyses of the horrific war in Europe that began July 28 a century ago, so named the Great War for its unprecedented scale, death count, and destabilizing aftershocks reverberating as far as Asia. How this could have happened, should Britain have entered the war at all, and what was the ultimate meaning of the war are still the stuff of intense controversy and debate. The Britain-Japan-China part of the story, a sidelight to the war engulfing Europe, has gotten less attention. Yet it, too, begs for further explanation of policy choices and cascading consequences that led to a disastrous turn in East Asian politics in the decades to follow. Britain and Japan in 1914 were linked by treaty obligations under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923), the first-ever reciprocal agreement between a Western and an Asian power. The relationship was already showing signs of strain, chiefly over access to the vast

US Army in Iraq ( Image credits-Wikimedia Commons/United States DOD) Over the past two weeks, the militant group ISIS has launched an almost unchallenged blitz across northern and central Iraq. Iraqi Army units vastly outnumber the jihadists and are far better armed than them - but for the most part Iraq's uniformed military melted away after putting up only minimal resistance. But ISIS fighters stopped when they reached the borders of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. They were facing an opponent that wasn't going to back off from a fight: the Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi  Kurdistan's own highly trained and battle-hardened paramilitary force. The Peshmerga, whose name translates as "those who face death," number anywhere from  35,000 to 190,000  fighters, are unlikely to retreat before an ISIS assault - especially if they are defending what they see as their homeland. The Peshmerga was first officially organized into a  nationalist fighting force  in 1943, al

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons On the  podcast yesterday , Ankit and I briefly discussed how India’s sizeable Muslim population might impact its position on the ongoing sectarian tensions between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I noted that India has the second largest Shia population in the world after Iran, and wondered if this might affect how Delhi handles the Iraq crisis and the rest of the Middle East. This would not be wholly unprecedented — although the situation is somewhat different, it’s worth noting that India’s Tamil population  has wielded enormous influence  on how  India handles ties with Sri Lanka . There are now signs that in fact India is being dragged into the sectarian tensions, whatever the position of the central government may be. Specifically, Anjuman-e-Haideri —  a Delhi-based Shia organization  — has begun enlisting India’s Shia population to travel to Baghdad to defend the Iraqi government. According to  the latest statemen