The absent dialogue: Civil-military relations and military effectiveness in India

This dissertation examines civil-military relations and military effectiveness in India. It begins by situating the Indian civil-military relations in the theoretical construct and argues that it most closely resembles Huntington's "objective control." However contrary to Huntington's claim this does not maximize its military effectiveness. Instead the unique characteristics of civil-military relations which can be characterized as an 'absent dialogue,' have an adverse impact on Indian military effectiveness. In making this argument the paper examines how civil-military relations shapes four most commonly understood attributes of military effectiveness---weapons procurement, defense planning, integration and officer education and promotion policies. It then examines the implications of India's experience for both civilian control and the theory of civil-military relations. In doing so it rejects an overly simplistic application of both objective and subjective control and argues that a "correct" balance in civil-military relations is probably impossible to define. Instead a constant dialogue between major stakeholders offers the most promise. The research methodology consists of archival research, field interviews and secondary sources.