State Affairs

“A nation that cannot project power beyond its own borders is not a superpower — it is a very large garrison.” — Col. Satyajeet Ghoshal EDITOR’S FOREWORD What you are about to read is not a comfortable document. It is not intended to be. Colonel Satyajeet Ghoshal has spent decades inside the engine room of one of the world’s largest standing armies, and when he speaks about India’s strategic limitations, he does so not with the bitterness of a critic but with the urgency of an architect who sees hairline cracks in the foundation before anyone else does. This extended conversation — expanded from the original ten questions to twenty — covers the full spectrum of national power: from the psychology of deterrence to the dirty business of sleeper cells; from the logistics of deep-strike operations to the quiet rot of institutional corruption. Colonel Ghoshal pulls no punches, but he also never loses sight of the larger vision — an India that does not merely aspire to superpower status but ...