BSEH SS Defence Studies key terms

The academic field that studies how states and societies organise, prepare and use armed force, and how military power interacts with politics, economics, technology and international law. It is interdisciplinary, drawing on strategic studies, history and international relations.

The highest level of strategy, in which a state coordinates all instruments of national power, including military, economic, diplomatic and informational, to secure its long-term national interests in peace and war.

The condition in which a state can protect its sovereignty, territorial integrity, people and core values from external aggression and internal subversion, while freely pursuing its legitimate national interests.

An aggregate assessment of a state's strength across economic, military, technological, demographic, diplomatic and cultural dimensions, used to compare powers and to judge whether strategic ambitions can be sustained.

A people-centred view of security that protects individuals from fear and want, covering economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political dimensions rather than only the state's borders.

Risks that do not arise from armed attack by another state but can seriously harm a nation, such as pandemics, cyber attacks, terrorism, climate change, disasters, energy insecurity and organised crime.

Persuading an adversary not to act by convincing it that the cost of action will exceed the expected gain. Effective deterrence requires capability, credibility and clear communication, not just weapons.

A four-star post created in 2019 as principal military adviser to the Defence Minister, heading the Department of Military Affairs and serving as permanent chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee to promote jointness. General Bipin Rawat was the first incumbent.

A unified command in which Army, Navy and Air Force elements in a defined theatre or function report to one commander. India has debated this reform for years and is moving towards creating joint theatre commands, though implementation remains in progress.

Forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB, raised under the Ministry of Home Affairs for internal security, border guarding and protection of vital installations. They differ from the armed forces in role, law and training.

A maritime armed force of the Union raised in 1978 under the Ministry of Defence, responsible for patrolling India's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, search and rescue, anti-smuggling and pollution response. It is separate from the Navy.

The legal instrument signed in October 1947 by the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, under which the state acceded to India, providing the constitutional basis for Indian involvement in the 1947-48 war.

The military line dividing Indian and Pakistani forces in Jammu and Kashmir, derived from the 1949 Karachi ceasefire line and renamed the LoC after the 1972 Simla Agreement. It is not an internationally recognised border.

The Indian military operation launched in April 1984 that pre-emptively occupied the Siachen Glacier and its dominating heights, denying Pakistan the Saltoro ridge and establishing the positions India still holds in the area.

The committee chaired by K. Subrahmanyam, appointed in 1999 after the Kargil conflict, whose 2000 report on intelligence, border management and higher defence organisation led to wide-ranging security reforms, including steps toward jointness.

The rulebook governing how India buys defence equipment, issued in 2020 to replace earlier procurement procedures. It sets out an acquisition hierarchy favouring indigenous design and manufacture, and regulates offsets, trials and contract management.

A condition in defence contracts obliging a foreign vendor to reinvest a share of the contract value in the buyer's domestic defence industry, through direct purchase, technology transfer or investment, to build local capability.

Government-owned defence manufacturers such as HAL, BEL and BDL, together with the seven entities created from the Ordnance Factory Board in 2021, producing aircraft, electronics, ammunition and platforms for the armed forces.

A supersonic cruise missile developed by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, capable of land, sea and air launch and now produced in extended-range variants.

India's declared nuclear policy of maintaining a survivable arsenal sufficient to inflict unacceptable retaliation, without seeking parity with larger nuclear powers, and adequate to discourage nuclear coercion or blackmail.

India's declared commitment not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, backed by the threat of massive retaliation against any nuclear attack on Indian forces or territory.

The coordinated use of military and non-military instruments such as cyber attacks, disinformation, economic pressure, proxy groups and limited force, kept below the threshold of open conventional war to avoid attribution and escalation.

A conflict in which a state supports non-state armed groups, funds or sponsors violence in another country to damage it without direct war. Pakistan's sponsorship of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir is a frequently cited example.

An organised, sustained armed challenge to a state's authority by a group seeking to overthrow, secede from or fundamentally change it, typically using guerrilla tactics, political mobilisation and support among a section of the population.

India's apex body for nuclear decisions, created in 2003, with a Political Council chaired by the Prime Minister that alone authorises nuclear use and an Executive Council chaired by the National Security Adviser.

Operations authorised by the UN Security Council deploying multinational troops, observers or police to monitor ceasefires, protect civilians and support political transitions. India has been among the largest and longest-serving troop contributors.

The 1968 treaty confining nuclear weapons to five recognised states, obliging them to pursue disarmament and barring others from acquiring such weapons. India has never signed it, describing it as discriminatory.

A group of nuclear-supplying states that coordinates export controls on nuclear materials and technology. India is not a member and has lobbied for entry, having received a waiver in 2008 to trade in nuclear goods.

The annual allocation of funds to the Ministry of Defence, comprising revenue expenditure for pay, stores and maintenance, capital outlay for equipment and construction, and pensions, voted by Parliament through demands for grants.

The relationship and balance of authority between elected political leaders and the armed forces. India follows firm civilian supremacy, with the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Committee on Security deciding policy while the services advise and execute.

The de facto boundary between Indian- and Chinese-controlled territory, roughly 3,500 kilometres long, never mutually demarcated, making it a recurring source of face-offs and patrol tensions such as the Galwan clash of 2020.

A single border facility bundling customs, immigration, cargo and security functions at a land crossing, developed by the Land Ports Authority of India at points such as Attari and Petrapole to speed trade and control movement.

A law creating a three-tier disaster management system with the National Disaster Management Authority chaired by the Prime Minister, state and district authorities, and the National Disaster Response Force, plus dedicated disaster response and mitigation funds.

The organised protection of civilians in war or emergency through air-raid warnings, shelters, blackouts, first aid, rescue and relief, governed in India by the Civil Defence Act, 1968 and run largely by trained volunteers.

The Maoist or Naxalite insurgency, an armed movement in parts of central and eastern India seeking to overthrow the state through revolutionary violence. It is treated as a major internal security challenge, countered by police operations and development measures.

A youth organisation under the Ministry of Defence, established by an act of 1948, training school and college students in discipline, leadership and basic military skills through Army, Navy and Air Force wings, with A, B and C certificates.

The organisations that assess officer aspirants for the armed forces through a multi-day battery of psychological tests, group tasks, a personal interview and a final conference, judging leadership potential and personality rather than academic knowledge alone.

The 2022 recruitment scheme under which soldiers, sailors and airmen are enrolled as Agniveers for four years, with a minority retained permanently and the remainder released with a lump-sum Seva Nidhi and a skills certificate.