Book Description

“Till recently dialogues and exchanges on strategic questions had unfortunately been an exclusive Western monopoly. The perceptions of our scholars, journalists and others tended to be influenced largely by the vast quantities of literature produced by Western strategic sources. Academicians from the non-aligned world very often met each other in conferences organized under Western auspices. There are very few fields in which our academic dependence has been as great as in the field of strategic studies. “This Seminar represents a significant departure from this pattern. It affords an opportunity for the two non-aligned friendly neighbours to get together to discuss our respective strategic perceptions, to establish direct contacts and communications between our institutions and scholars and to improve and reinforce our mutual understanding free from the distorting influence of foreign scholars. “Viewed in this perspective the significance of this seminar goes far beyond this immediate occasion. Indonesia has developed the concept of national resilience. In India we have a philosophy of self-reliance. Both these approaches require that on strategic and international security issues we should develop our own independent perceptions unfettered by the biased strategic doctrines of Western scholars. This was in fact to some extent the position in the first decade of non-alignment when both our countries rejected the concept of a rigid bipolar world though our perceptions at that stage were derived more from certain philosophical formulations rather than from a detailed analysis of strategic factors which affected our security. “Today it is obvious that such an approach is grossly inadequate. It is necessary for us to independently compile relevant factual data, analyse them critically and derive our own conclusions. It is on the basis of these independent conclusions that our own national strategies have to be formulated. Institutions like the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses play a very useful role in developing such national perceptions. Interactions between such institutions are bound to reflect in due course at national levels.”