Drafting security strategy

India needs to fill a big gap

News reports suggest that the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), the government’s apex body for strategic planning, has begun the process of formulating a national security strategy (NSS) for the country. Given the changing strategic dynamics, this is a welcome step. The strategic policy document details the country’s security objectives, and broadly spells out how to achieve those. A country’s major military reforms should flow from a coherent NSS. The initiative to formulate an NSS comes after years of deliberation within the military and strategic community; and recommendations to this effect by the Kargil Review Committee in 1999 and a