“Recent geo-political developments reaffirm relevance of hard power,” says Army Chief Manoj Pande

General Manoj Pande, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), on April 23 said that the recent geo-political developments have reaffirmed the relevance of a country’s hard power.

“The current geo-strategic landscape is characterised by Change, taking place at unprecedented scale and speed. Recent geo-political power plays have displayed, that where National Interests are concerned, countries will not hesitate to go to war. These developments have reaffirmed the relevance of Hard Power,” General Manoj Pande said while addressing participants at addressed participants at the National Leadership Conclave of All India Management Association.

He mentioned that the overall ‘rise’ of a nation can be said to occur when there is a significant and continuous increase in its Comprehensive National Power.

While ‘Economic Power’ is the fountainhead of the growth of the nation, it is the ‘Military Strength’ that lends it the ability to affect the outcomes, necessary to protect and further its multifarious interests, in expanding strategic horizons, he said.

He said that military strength and capabilities are necessary to prevent war and present a credible deterrence, enabling a robust response to threats and winning wars, when required, across the entire spectrum of conflict.

“In our quest to achieve and sustain a ‘Hard Power’ quotient, we need to be alive to the implication of external dependency to meet defence requirements. The impact of supply chain disruptions and weaponisation of denial regimes – came to the fore, during the Pandemic and also from the lessons of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. These developments have underscored that the security of the nation, can neither be outsourced nor be dependent on the largesse of others,” he said.

“In the context of capability development, if we are import – dependent for critical technologies on countries that possess them, we must be very clear that we will always remain one technology cycle behind,” he added.

The army chief said that the unprecedented trends in the geo-strategic landscape, the limitless potential of Disruptive Technologies, the transforming character of modern Wars and the profound changes in the socio-economic domain, are the four key drivers of IA’s Transformation efforts.

(with inputs from ANI)