India's Security Concerns And Policies: Strategic Relations, Defence Policy, And Doctrine In A Changing Regional Order
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 7
- 1 min read
Aditi Sah, B.B.A. LL.B., Bharati Vidyapeeth University
ABSTRACT
Few questions in contemporary international relations carry greater regional consequence than the trajectory of India's security policy. Situated between two nuclear-armed neighbours with whom it shares unresolved territorial disputes, and at the centre of an Indian Ocean region of growing strategic contestation, India has been compelled across the decades since independence to forge a security posture adequate to a remarkably demanding strategic environment. This paper analyses that posture across six interlinked dimensions: Sino-Indian relations from the Panchsheel framework of 1954 through the Eastern Ladakh standoff and the October 2024 patrolling agreement; India-Pakistan relations from Partition through the wars of the twentieth century to Operation Sindoor in May 2025 and the unprecedented suspension of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty; the structural constraints confronting regional cooperation under SAARC and India's corresponding turn toward BIMSTEC; the institutional evolution of India's defence establishment from Nehruvian restraint through the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff in 2019; India's maritime security strategy and the SAGAR doctrine; and the conventional and nuclear doctrines that govern India's use of force. The paper argues that Indian security policy has progressively shifted from the strategic restraint characteristic of the early post-independence decades toward a more assertive and calibrated posture, while remaining constrained by a two-front challenge, a dormant regional architecture, and the requirements of nuclear stability. It relies on official government documents, bilateral treaties, strategic analyses, and contemporary reporting to assess the degree to which India's declared doctrines have kept pace with this evolving environment.
Keywords: India's Security Policy; Sino-Indian Relations; India-Pakistan Relations; South Asian Regional Cooperation; Maritime Security; Nuclear Doctrine.
