Towards a national security policy

Abstract

The 20th century witnessed incremental use of systematic violence as a form of political action to fight and espouse a multitude of political causes. Violence, which emanated from clash of wills ; now locates itself in a distinct political discourse of Terror- as the most viable means to achieve any political objective. Hitherto; nation states had contended with violence/terror, terrorists and terrorism. In-fact, history is witness to these nomenclatures and this research is seized of the one man s terrorist is another man s freedom fighter. But its contemporary proportions, purpose and collateral damage to the neutral has since become unprecedented and minatory to the human civilization in the history of world politics. The coordinated attacks of September 11, 2001 in the US - on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were stridently striking in their audacity and the shock and it generated across the world. It signalled the reach, both - financial and organisational as much as the strength and striking capabilities of this new face of terror and form of politics. And most certainly it resulted in formalization of the much warranted changes in the perceptions, contemplations and definitions of what constituted security and the renewed focus and initiatives required to address it. In the realm of political strategy, the traditional distinction between the internal and the external spheres, and between internal and external security which was long under discussion, virtually crystallized overnight. In this transformed international context which emerged after the terrorist acts in New York and Washington, security policies of nations across the world have been revisited to be conceived and analysed essentially as a continuum, stretching from ground level to macro-strategic balances. The blurring of distinctions between internal and external security, the connected impulses towards better coordination between the correspondent policy fields, are among the fundamental structural changes that have occurred in national politics, international relations, and therefore policy making- across the world. India could not possibly have remained insular to these changes. Coincidentally, the spate of events in India; particularly in last decade and a half have emphasized the urgent need for a comprehensive review of National security. And as if to shake the system out of its inertia; the happenings of 26/11 brought to fore the glaring gaps in the security matrix of the country and the dire need for a renewed approach to addressing national security; if not a defined doctrine. The study was conceived much before the Mumbai attacks of 26/11/08, as the writing was quite clear on the wall; but has become fortuitously more compelling ever since.