Editor’s Note
Most senior officials of all three services possibly feel, like the author does, “ That the need to read, reflect, analyse and pontificate on the challenges and come out with solutions based on knowledge and critical thinking are areas that have been neglected institutionally by the services. The IAF has started a ‘Warfare and Aerospace Strategy (WASP) program to address the lacunae in training. The author feels the course would encourage reading, catalyse a discerning and analytical mindset, and the growth of Strategic Thinkers or Scholar Warriors.
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The United States Army War College was the first to use the acronym VUCA in 1987, which stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States of America. Military strategists expressed concern regarding the profoundly distinct and unfamiliar global security landscape that had arisen, hence resorting to the acronym VUCA to characterise it. The world has since then been characterised by these elements that have ensured that it remains unpredictable with changes that could be unprecedented and rapid, with an unclear present and an uncertain future, with varied and unconnected factors coming into play that make it complex and ambiguous with a lack of clarity on existing situations.
VUCA encompasses a range of challenges that organisational units, leadership, and institutions in impacted domains must confront. Individually, these challenges may be substantial, but their amalgamation can make them substantially greater. To navigate the challenges of VUCA, it is imperative to avoid conventional and obsolete management, leadership, and operations methodologies. Typically, those tools are too slow and have limited capabilities to be effective in an unpredictable environment.
Managing in the VUCA era requires capacity building to use innovative, more agile, and pragmatic approaches. The armed forces, however, have always been confronted with such an environment on the battlefield, where deception and surprise invariably play a major role in warfare. To prepare the armed forces’ leadership, it is essential that they are not only trained in combat skills but also are able to strategise and think clearly through the fog and friction of war.
The Initiatives
The Indian Air Force has taken the initiative to conduct a ‘Warfare and Aerospace Strategy (WASP) program. The IAF, concerned with the evolving nature of war in the aerospace domain, the emergence of critical technologies and the requirement of multi domain operations employment of swarm drones and anti-drone measures, as well as the use of Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) ideas involving Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) considered it essential to create an ecosystem that nurtures and encourages critical thinking amongst the practitioners of warfare.
The requirement to read, reflect, analyse and pontificate on the challenges and come out with solutions that are based on knowledge and critical thinking was an area that the IAF felt had been neglected institutionally. The WASP program is designed to serve this purpose and generate a pool of officers who would be well equipped to deal with future challenges. The program utilises a pedagogical approach that emphasises extensive reading of 250-300 pages every day, engaging in seminar discussions and brainstorming on the book/subject mentored by the author or a subject matter expert, attending conferences and seminars with international think tanks and war schools overseas, and producing written essays on the themes or topics addressed in the programme.
The changing character of war, complex security challenges that have witnessed anything being weaponized, global supply chain disruption and deglobalisation after the COVID pandemic or selective globalisation amongst emerging allies or partners has made it mandatory that the military leadership of tomorrow is adequately equipped to manage and navigate this environment successfully. This 28-week program that has more than half the time devoted to reading and learning ‘in person’ ensures that the students read and discuss more than sixty books and draw out important insights relating them to contemporary challenges. Divided into five modules that cover Civil-Military Relations and the Higher Defence Organisation, Air Power, Foundations of Strategy, Military Theory and International Relations, Irregular Warfare, Contemporary Warfare Strategy, and Space, Information Warfare and Technology, the officers get an overview of national and domain-specific challenges to national security and peace in the region and beyond.
The WASP participants got an opportunity to discuss current geopolitics and India’s strategic choices, with the External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, based on his book ‘The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World’ and on his rich and diverse experience as a career diplomat for almost four decades and as a minister for five years. Dr Jaishankar spoke on the naivety of Indian policymaking in the past that was characterised by strategic obliviousness and the absence of realpolitik when dealing with China post-independence and even much after the 1962 debacle. The requirement and importance of a politico-military approach to decision-making that had been found wanting and the importance of narratives that are working assumptions in people’s minds led to inaction or wishful thinking, much to the detriment of the nation. Conflict and communication make an interesting dialogue that would invariably have consequences. According to Dr. Jaishankar it was time for India to stand up for itself, make deliberate choices in national interest and focus on building national capacity and capability indigenously or by plugging in with like minded partners globally.
Way Ahead
With fourteen officers from the Indian Air Force (IAF), two from the Indian Navy, one from the Indian Army and a Research Scholar from the Observer Research Foundation, the program is being conducted concurrently at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi and the College of Air Warfare, Secunderabad. The programme will culminate with a capstone seminar in the final week of June 2024, during which course participants will present researched papers on specific topics related to national security.
Exposure of the course participants to the key components of Comprehensive National Power would enable them to develop a sound understanding of Operational Art and Grand Strategy that encompasses a whole government approach. This would provide learners with opportunities to acquire knowledge and develop the capacity to analyse and evaluate information, allowing them to establish independent perspectives and devise solutions for intricate issues, thus facilitating logical and efficient decision-making. The WASP programme is a modest initiative by the IAF to cultivate a culture within the armed forces and the academia related to national security that encourages reading, a discerning and analytical mindset, and the growth of Strategic Thinkers or Scholar Warriors.
AVM Anil Golani (Retd)
