7 papers · 2020 – 2024
Papers
Articles on maritime strategy, limited war, the uses of sea power and world order, including work published in the Journal of Defence Studies and the Indian Naval Despatch.
Research paper2024
On World Order and its Future Outlook
The phrase 'world order' is used everywhere in geopolitical debate, usually with an adjective in front of it and rarely with a clear meaning. The paper seeks conceptual clarity: what world order describes, and what it is meant to do. It then traces how world order has been built since the World Wars and sets that against the realities of the twenty-first century, concluding that the old order is morphing, the new one has yet to take shape, and the present is best seen as an interregnum.
Indian Naval DespatchVol. 4, No. 1 · 2023
Grey Zones in Blue Waters
If black and white sit at opposite ends of the spectrum of conflict, peace and war, the grey zone is the contested space between them. The paper asks whether grey zone operations are a distinct form of warfare or an old tactic in new clothes, what their legal limits are, and how they play out at sea. It examines the legitimacy of grey zone strategies and their corollaries in the maritime domain, and suggests options to counter them.
Indian Naval DespatchSpring 2022
India–Pakistan and Limited War
Since the nuclear tests of 1998, Pakistan has used the nuclear umbrella to push sub-conventional warfare against India, while India looks for room to use conventional force without inviting escalation. The article asks whether a cohesive limited war strategy could deter Pakistan's proxy war while keeping India's conventional superiority, and whether it offers an answer to the India–Pakistan security conundrum.
Indian Naval DespatchSummer 2021
Maritime Strategy and Terrestrial Influence
Wars are ultimately fought for objectives on land, and a navy's value lies in its ability to shape the battle ashore. Starting from the Indian Navy's attack on Karachi in December 1971, the article examines how better surveillance, long-range standoff weapons and the manoeuvre advantage of the sea let maritime forces influence land campaigns, and what that means for maritime strategy.
Journal of Defence StudiesVol. 15, No. 1 · Jan–Mar 2021 · pp. 27–51
Demystifying Trade Warfare
Navies have long waged war on an enemy's seaborne trade, yet naval thinking has swung between treating it as the prime use of sea power and a sideshow best avoided. Global shipping has since changed beyond recognition: larger fleets, flags of convenience, interconnected trade and national strategic reserves. The article weighs the arguments for and against maritime trade warfare in the twenty-first century and distils possible answers for its conduct.
Journal of Defence StudiesVol. 14, No. 3 · Jul–Sep 2020 · pp. 29–49
Russo-Japanese War: An Examination of Limited War Strategy
Japan defeated Russia in 1904–05 by executing a near-perfect limited war strategy, defining limited political aims and calibrating its military effort to match. The article draws out what such a strategy demands: balanced forces, a military policy aware of its constraints, synergy between political masters and military executors, diplomatic capital to shape war termination, the right decisive points, and tools to shape public opinion. It then tests those lessons against the twenty-first century.
Journal of Defence StudiesVol. 14, No. 1–2 · Jan–Jun 2020 · pp. 49–68
Influence of Alfred Thayer Mahan on Japanese Maritime Strategy
Rebuilding during the Meiji Restoration, the Imperial Japanese Navy lacked both capability and a strategic doctrine, and turned to Alfred Thayer Mahan to fill the gap. The paper traces how the IJN fixed on certain of Mahan's ideas, how they hardened its tactics and war plans, and how doctrinal rigidity left it blind to the triggers for change that underwrote its defeat in the Second World War.
