India’s security dilemmas are complex, with two hostile powers on its frontiers and a large number of internal fault lines which are vulnerable and have been exploited by the adversaries in the past. The Indian Army Doctrine of 2018 defines ‘the collusive external threat from adversaries as well as the internal instability due to state/non-state sponsored proxy war’ as the primary security challenge to India.

This is an article exploring some of our wars in the Indian Himalayas to derive correct lessons for future conflict management. In light of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and future theatre commands, restructuring and reorientation for the future is already on, but with Covid-19 and its aftermath, there is an urgency and imperative to accelerate changes. While the Indian armed forces are much better prepared to fight the integrated battle, it is still important to revisit doctrines and debacles as a reiteration of important lessons of mountain warfare.

This book is a compilation of 30 pioneering papers on issues connected with India's national defence. These papers are a part of the vast repository of VIF publications over the past decade of its functioning as a strategic think tank with the purpose of addressing the complex commitments on defence that the State has been confronted with. The titles have been selected to cover a wide range of aspects of national defence and military administration, thus depicting a panorama of India`s military security challenges.

… there are many hurdles to cross in our endeavour to reform our system of national defence to meet the parameters of the nation’s military threats, technological and industrial capacities and fiscal affordability… The CDS … would be just one ‘cog’, albeit a central one, in the management of national defence … it would need a conducive ground to perform in the best manner desired ... In order reap the advantages its full measure, there have to be rebuilt the entire system of our defence management – defence reforms, in short …