UGC NET Defence & Strategic Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Clausewitz's trinity

Three interacting forces shaping war: primordial violence and hostility (the people), chance and probability (the military), and reason subordinated to policy (the government).

Deterrence by denial

A strategy that dissuades an adversary by convincing it that an attack will fail to achieve its objectives, rather than by threatening punishment after the fact.

Kautilya's Arthashastra

Ancient Indian treatise on statecraft and strategy (c. 4th century BCE) that classifies warfare as open, concealed, and silent, and lists conciliation, gifts, division, and force as policy instruments.

Jomini's principles

Codified Napoleonic warfare into maxims: concentrate force against the decisive point, operate on interior lines, and maintain secure lines of communication and supply.

Battle of Plassey

1757 battle in Bengal in which the British East India Company under Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal, establishing British political power in India.

1971 Indo-Pak War

Thirteen-day war in which India intervened in East Pakistan, leading to the surrender of Pakistani forces in Dhaka and the creation of Bangladesh.

Security dilemma

Condition in which a state's defensive measures appear threatening to others, prompting countermeasures and an unintended spiral of arms and hostility.

Mutually hurting stalemate

Zartman's concept that a conflict becomes ripe for negotiation when both parties believe they cannot win and the cost of continuing exceeds the cost of settling.

Heartland thesis

Mackinder's geopolitical argument that control of the Eurasian interior, the Heartland, confers control of the World-Island and hence global dominance.

UNCLOS zones

The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention sets a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, a 24-mile contiguous zone, and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

India's nuclear doctrine

India's declared posture of credible minimum deterrence, no first use, and massive retaliation, with civilian political control exercised through the Nuclear Command Authority.

Chief of Defence Staff

Senior-most uniformed officer created in 2019, serving as Principal Military Adviser to the Defence Minister and heading the Department of Military Affairs.

Defence offsets

Contractual obligations requiring a foreign supplier to reinvest a share of contract value in the buyer's domestic defence industry or transfer technology.

Tooth-to-tail ratio

The ratio of combat personnel to support and logistics personnel, used to measure the efficiency of a military force structure.

Revolution in Military Affairs

A transformation in warfare combining new technology with doctrinal and organisational change, such as the nuclear, precision-strike, or information RMA.

BrahMos missile

India-Russia jointly developed supersonic cruise missile capable of launch from land, sea, and air platforms, with a range of roughly 290 to 450 kilometres.

Objective civilian control

Huntington's model in which armed forces are professional, politically neutral, and subordinate to civilian authority, maximising military expertise while ensuring political supremacy.

Agnipath scheme

India's 2022 recruitment scheme enrolling Agniveers for four years, with up to 25 percent retained in regular service after the term ends.

NATO Article 5

The Washington Treaty clause stating that an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all, obligating collective defence responses.

UN Security Council veto

The power of the five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to block substantive Security Council resolutions.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

1968 treaty built on non-proliferation, disarmament, and peaceful-use pillars, recognising five nuclear-weapon states; India, Pakistan, and Israel remain outside it.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

1996 treaty prohibiting nuclear test explosions, requiring ratification by 44 specified states before entry into force; India has not signed it.

Levels of analysis

Waltz's framework distinguishing individual, state, and international-system levels, each offering different explanations for state behaviour and conflict.

Process tracing

Qualitative within-case method that tests causal mechanisms by examining evidence for each step in a hypothesised chain linking cause to outcome.

Net assessment

Analytical method comparing one's own strengths and weaknesses with an adversary's across military, economic, and technological dimensions to inform strategy.

Crisis stability

The condition in which neither side has an incentive to strike first during a crisis, typically because forces are survivable and escalation is controlled.

Mill's method of difference

Comparative method identifying causes by finding cases that differ in outcome and in the presence of a suspected causal factor while sharing other characteristics.

SIPRI database

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute dataset providing consistent cross-national data on military expenditure, arms transfers, and armaments.

Jus ad bellum

The body of principles governing when resort to force is justified, including just cause, legitimate authority, proportionality, and last resort.

Jus in bello

The principles governing conduct during armed conflict, notably distinction between combatants and civilians, proportionality, and military necessity.

Securitisation theory

Copenhagen School argument that issues become security threats when actors use speech acts to justify exceptional measures beyond normal political procedure.

Human security

UNDP's 1994 concept shifting the referent of security from the state to individuals, covering economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political dimensions.