By Abhijit Singh
The decision by the government of India to raise a mountain strike corps has triggered an interesting debate on just how India can effectively deter Chinese aggression on its border. The debate is between the Mackinderites and the Mahanians.
In an article in the Journal of Defence Studies in July (India’s Geostrategy and China – Mackinder vs Mahan), Zorawar Daulet Singh first staked out the Mackinderite position by arguing that India’s strategic plans for countering Chinese aggression must shift emphasis from “maritime dominance” to more “border-centric” formulations.
Then, Rear Admiral (Retd) Raja Menon, in a well-argued piece in The Hindu on July 29, chided the continentalists by criticizing the government’s raising of a mountain corps, which he felt served no useful purpose other than creating another unmanageable and ineffective asset. Menon argued that the effort and resources being lavished on forming an “air-immobile and single-axis” strike corps should have been spent on creating a more capable maritime force, which could be used to choke Chinese trade in the Indian Ocean. In a rejoinder to Admiral Menon’s piece a few days later, Singh reemphasized the futility of expecting Indian maritime strength in the Indian Ocean region to effectively deter Chinese adventurism on the border.
While both writers make compelling arguments, each appears to have missed out on at least one crucial aspect of the India-China conflict dynamic. In both cases, that aspect is a critical piece in the jigsaw of Sino-Indian strategic relations, the absence of which renders both maximalist positions untenable.
Read the full story at The Diplomat