The Learning Grounds of Ukraine- Relevance for UPSC Exam
- GS Paper 2: International Relations- Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.
The Learning Grounds of Ukraine
- Russia-Ukraine War is continuing for over two months without any conclusion as of now, it is time to draw some interim lessons, especially for India.
Russia-Ukraine War Updates
- Mariupol (Ukraine) has fallen (sans the Azovstov steel mill) into the hands of Russia Troops.
- The existence of the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ fighter pilot has been officially denied by Ukraine,
- There are media reports that Europe is trying to fully phase out its dependency on Russian energy and that some embassies are reopening in Kyiv.
Russia Ukraine War | Russia attacks Ukraine and India’s Diplomatic Dilemma
Learning for India from Russia-Ukraine war
- Alliances matter: Alliances do matter in this inter-connected world no matter how powerful a country may be.
- A long-term sustainable view that looks after India’s interests through linkages with other like-minded nations is therefore vital, especially since our neighbourhood is not benign.
- Importance of hard power: Though it is too early to say that a truncated Ukrainian nation is what would emerge when the conflict ends, what we have witnessed is that brute ‘power’ is important for a country.
- This is a vital lesson for India.
- Importance of Intelligence: American intelligence was right about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions to go to war.
- The high-resolution satellite imagery is now commercially available to any nation that is willing to pay levels the playing field a bit in modern warfare.
- Learning: While it is important to have tactical knowledge of enemy dispositions, what is much more vital is to discern the thought process of the adversary’s leadership.
- Importance of Able Leadership: Leadership counts and good leaders have an intangible positive impact.
- This can be seen from the the visuals and pep talks tweeted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy these past months, as he conveyed two vital messages from the streets of Ukraine.
- The first was that the Ukrainian leadership was intact and
- Second, their executive head was in the fight as much as the citizens were; that he has never appeared in a business suit, and always in combat fatigues (even while meeting foreign leaders), has added a halo to his standing.
- Contrast this with the flight of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as the Taliban closed in on Kabul – resistance collapsed and Afghan soldiers melted away.
- Comprehensive National Power (CNP): CNP is a true yardstick of a nation’s deterrence capability and its ability to fight if deterrence fails, as it takes into account-
- social and political stability,
- aspects of economic strength,
- natural resources,
- Geography,
- R&D capability,
- Manufacturing capacity and
- Quality of its national leadership.
SWIFT Ban on Russia | Russia Ukraine War
Securing India’s Geo-Strategic Interest- Way Forward
- For India, surrounded by two adversarial nations, a true appraisal is necessary since the government’s well-meaning aatmanirbharta drive has still to reach take-off speed.
- New Delhi has to allocate available resources to imports that would still take place (especially in the defence sector) while domestic capability and capacity is ramped up in parallel.
- Social cohesion is another vital ingredient in CNP and needs the leadership’s focused attention at all times in our multicultural and multi-religious polity.
Conclusion
- With international relations in a churn, a new rising power in China, Russia trying to regain its lost status and Pakistan not turning any friendlier, it is imperative that there be no chink in India’s deterrence armour.
Impact of Russia-Ukraine Conflict on Shipping Sector
adda247.com/…/impact-of-russia-ukraine-conflict-on-shipping-sector