Source: DAN BLUMENTHAL, WSJ: “This isn’t just a change in military doctrine—it’s a reflection of America’s declining power in Asia.”
There is one country responding to China’s military build-up and aggressiveness with some muscle of its own. No, it is not the United States, the superpower ostensibly responsible for maintaining peace and security in Asia. Rather, it is India, whose military is currently refining a “two-front war” doctrine to fend off Pakistan and China simultaneously.
Defending against Pakistan isn’t anything new, and Delhi has long viewed China with suspicion. But in recent years India has been forced to think more seriously about an actual armed conflict with its northern neighbor. Last year Beijing started a rhetorical clash over the Dalai Lama’s and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visits to Arunachal Pradesh state, which China claims as its own. In the two years before that, Chinese border incursions into India almost doubled. Not to mention China’s massive military buildup and concerted push for a blue-water navy.
In response, the Indian military is rewriting its so-called “Cold Start” doctrine. Cold Start’s initial intent was to provide the armed forces with more rapid and flexible response options to Pakistani aggression. The Indian military believed that its ground forces’ slow and lumbering mobilization after the 2001 terrorist attacks on its parliament played to Pakistan’s advantage: International opinion turned against decisive Indian military action. Delhi also worried that its plan to send in heavy forces to weaken Pakistan was unrealistic and might well trigger a nuclear response.