Jointness: An Indian Strategic Culture Perspective
Rahul K. Bhonsle
INTRODUCTION
Integration of battlefield assets, be it man or machine, has been a time
worn cliché in warfare. The orchestration of forces with dissimilar
characteristics such as the infantry, charioteers, elephants and cavalry
was considered as the spark of a military genius. A few like Alexander
or Hannibal distinguished themselves in the art of the set-piece battles,
replicated on the modern conventional battlefield. As warfare extends
in five dimensions of land, sea, air, space and cyber, challenges of
integration have greatly increased. At the same time there is a need to
maintain the identity of each component based on differential in
employment, training, equipping, maintenance and logistics.
This dichotomy is resolved through creation of joint forces, the US
Armed forces being the foremost model, evolved through the Goldwater-
Nichols DoD Reorganization Act 1986. Their success in operations
during the Gulf War in 1991, in Operation Enduring Freedom 2001 and
Iraqi Freedom 2003 led to acceptance of jointness in other armed
forces.
The debate over jointness in India commenced post-Kargil 1999.
Historically, however, the issue has been evolving for the last four
decades or so. In the initial years this was focused on appointment
of a Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) which first came up for discussion
post 1965 and sadly enough continues to this day. Joint or theatre
commands and integration of Service HQs with Ministry of Defence
(MoD) are other strands of this debate. At the functional level the
hierarchical ladder of jointness envisages cooperation, coordination,
integration and jointness (CCIJ). While there is a general agreement
on the need for implementation of first three steps, CCI – the final J
- jointness continues to remain elusive. The debate on jointness is also
singularly lacking in perspective from the point of view of India’s
strategic culture and security environment. Moreover glitches in existing
models of jointness need to be taken into account before adaptation.
It is therefore necessary to apply the stimulus of national strategic
culture to the jointness debate in India and evoke possible responses.
