A 'bottom-up' approach to defence management is a bold experiment

While the ministry of defence has been pitching a joint operations command for better synergy among the country's armed services, it has not revealed why the recommendations of the GoMs were rejected

It has been seventeen years since the group of ministers (GoM), tasked to review the national security system in its entirety, submitted its report. In keeping with our indifferent approach to national security, whilst some peripheral recommendations have been implemented, two vital issues of higher defence management, namely civil-military interface and jointness in operational planning, remain unaddressed.

That out of the blue, one aspect of this complex subject, namely the issue of theatre commands, should become the subject of a raging media debate, comes as a surprise. This refers to the setting up joint command centres, where assets of all