Dr. Raja Muhammad Khan

Dr Raja Muhammad Khan is the Head of Department of International Relations at National Defence University, Islamabad.

DOI: http://DOI Number

Keywords: India, Grand Strategy, superpowers, Pakistan, China, Status Quo Power, strategic thought

Abstract

“A grand strategy is a nation-state’s theory about how to produce security for itself.” The grand strategy is similarly defined by the editors of a recent book on India’s grand strategy as “the mix of national resources and capacities — military, diplomatic, political, economic, cultural, and moral — that are employed in the service of national security.” This, it should be noted, is just a tiny deviation from Basil Liddel Hart’s original definition of grand strategy, which uses the term war in place of national security.However, the point is that grand strategy, whether it be a theory, an idea, or a helpful action guide, is a social construct, thus it is wiser to try to study it in terms of its results than to try to trace its roots to some centralised document. The idea, as Professor Murray has described above, nonetheless remains esoteric, despite the fact that it is occasionally associated with national security strategy and that sometimes the grandeur of the term forces humble analysts to exercise restraint. This is another reason why the second step from the beginning is frequently required. With the emergence of articles with headlines like “China’s Quest for Grand Strategy” or “Is China a Status Quo Power?,” similar questions about the existence of grand strategy have also been raised in the case of China. Misgivings exist in the case of India as well, with entire volumes devoted to attempts to solve the puzzle.

First Published

March 25, 2015

How to Cite

Dr, Raja Muhammad Khan, “The Dynamics of Indian Grand Strategy: Reading the Symbolic Discourse of India’s Strategic Culture,” Regional Studies 33, no.2 (Spring 2015): 33-48, https://regionalstudies.com.pk/wp/article/the-dynamics-of-indian-grand-strategy-reading-the-symbolic-discourse-of-indias-strategic-culture/

Issue

Volume 33, Issue 2