The Original Gurukul of Strategic Analyses in Modern India: My Reminiscences of IDSA

Established to fill a gap between policy research and policy innovation, the IDSA is the original gurukul of strategic analyses in modern India. My reminiscences of IDSA in the seventies are a décollage selected to share in a sense of national pride for witnessing some momentous events that became bench marks in shaping India’s defense posture. It (décollage) also expresses professional gratification for being a part of the IDSA faculty with K Subrahmanyam as its Director. All he had to do to be a first responder was to swiftly re-arrange those chromosomes to foresee or react to any threat to India’s national security be it an event or a trend. Subrahmanyam had strategic thinking written into his intellectual DNA. With a seamless logical hook, he could connect doctrines with decision making, or vice versa, to support or question an impending course of action by policy makers. At the same time, his professional etiquette as a bureaucrat allowed him to side-step rather than trip over political protocol.