CENTRE FOR AIR POWER STUDIES - New Delhi - Civil-Military Fusion in the Indian Context

At the power level, it is the power of the officer corps relative to the civilian groups within the society. [...] On the ideological level, it is the compatibility of professional military ethics with the political ideologies prevailing in the society.2 Through all the definitions, a few points that characterise civil-military relations emerge: First, it is the relations between military and civilian bodies at a higher level of society (officer’s corps and governing organs of the civilians, as per Huntington). [...] The ruler had his military department, but along with it, he had diplomats- the minister of war and peace, known as the “Mahasandhivigrahika”, and the finance minister, known as the “Ranabhandagaradhikarna”, who ably supported the military in pursuit of the empire’s expansion and glory. [...] After the implementation of the results of the Kargil Review Committee, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) were created. [...] Similarly, geo-political issues like terrorism, the increase of religious fundamentalism and the multi-polarity of the world can reshape the civil-military understandings and improve future coordination and collaboration.