ARTICLE: “Land of Gandhi Asserts Itself as Global Military Power,” by Anand Giridharadas, New York Times, 22 September 2008.

Starts by noting ship-boarding exercise, and then extrapolates a bit boldly to India refashioning itself “as an armed power with global reach,” which turns out to mean the Indian ocean and the PG but not really anything else.

No doubt of India’s rise or the natural ambition of its navy. Hell, I wrote that piece (“India’s 12 Steps to a World-Class Navy”), much to the delight of its naval establishment, more than seven years ago. But my point there, using the 12 steps program of Alcoholics Anonymous (a trick I resurrect in Great Powers) was to highlight how India’s logical global naval ambitions were held captive, in terms of acquisition, to its ground-forces mafia that remains—to this day—totally wrapped around the axle called Kashmir.

This article acknowledges that little change has occurred in that realm, so we have the vision but not yet the resources, which equates—as the old Pentagon saw goes—to hallucination but not grand strategy.

Clearly, India’s navy stepped up big time on the Christmas tsunamis a few years back, and in 2006 did a classic NEO (non-combatant evacuation operation) in Lebanon. But these remain essentially baby steps.

So the acquisition money and planning impulse still remain with the ground forces, even as India begins to recognize the disjuncture between that mindset and its emerging economic interests around the globe. In my mind, then, India remains a rising power whose power projection capabilities are still worth shaping.

As the article also argues, much of this push comes in response to China’s own naval expansion. Like India, China’s military remains myopically focused on a border situation—Taiwan, but in this instance there is plenty of opportunity for the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) to mine—pun intended.

Thus another example why we should target the PLA first and foremost as a strategic ally and garner India’s attention in the process. Between them, we’re talking a lot of natural ambition to run things in the Indian Ocean and Central Asia—for now, with that ambition naturally expanding over time to include the PG over oil and gas.

Sounds very good for the U.S.—if those capabilities are harnessed to some larger grand strategic vision.