Global Power Contest Expands Beyond Land & Sea: India’s CDS General Chauhan Says
CDS General Anil Chauhan said that the changing character of warfare is reshaping global power equations. Image courtesy: X.com/@HQ_IDS_India
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Sunday (November 9, 225) underscored that the global struggle for dominance has expanded beyond traditional domains of land, sea, and air to include space, cyberspace, and even the cognitive sphere.
Speaking at the 9th Military Literature Festival 2025 in Chandigarh, he highlighted how the changing character of warfare is reshaping global power equations and reaffirmed India’s pivotal strategic role in the Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
What were the CDS’s views on India’s maritime power?
Addressing the theme “Heartland and Rimland Powers in a Multi-domain Warfare and India”, Gen Chauhan said India’s dual identity as both a continental and maritime power positions it as the “first responder and preferred partner of choice” for many nations in the IOR.
“A nation’s geography continues to shape its strategic options,” he noted, citing British author Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography to illustrate how geography determines a country’s capacity to project power, irrespective of its size.
How did the CDS describe India’s strategic evolution?
Reflecting on India’s strategic evolution, the CDS remarked, “If you look at the geopolitical events of the 20th century — India’s partition, the emergence of Pakistan, and our war with China — these compelled India to adopt a continental mindset. But geography tells us that India is both a continental and maritime power.”
Using examples of small yet strategically significant nations, he pointed to Djibouti and Singapore, which command critical chokepoints like the Bab el Mandeb and the Strait of Malacca, respectively.
He also highlighted Indonesia’s key maritime straits — Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Ombai-Wetar — as vital links between the Pacific and Indian Oceans that sustain global trade.
What were Gen Chauhan’s warnings on emerging warfare?
Gen Chauhan delved deeper into the emerging frontiers of modern warfare, emphasising that future conflicts will no longer be confined to physical battlefields.
He said the contest for dominance has moved into space, cyberspace, and the cognitive domain, where control over information, technology, and perception is becoming as critical as control over land or seas.
“Over a century, the struggle for global power has been about control of geography, the seas, the continents, and the skies; and today, it extends to space, cyberspace, and the cognitive domain,” he observed, noting that nations that adapt to these new realities will define the balance of power in the 21st century.
What are the prerequisites of multi-domain warfare?
The CDS underlined that multi-domain warfare now requires seamless coordination across military, technological, and informational fronts.
Artificial intelligence, cyber operations, and satellite-based intelligence gathering are reshaping the battlefield, he said, urging military thinkers and strategists to develop doctrines that integrate these new dimensions.
He also stressed that India’s evolving defence posture must keep pace with these rapid transformations, ensuring that the country is not only prepared for conventional threats but is also capable of countering challenges in emerging, non-traditional domains.
Through his remarks, Gen Chauhan emphasised that India’s geography and capabilities make it a central actor in ensuring stability, connectivity, and security across the Indo-Pacific region amid an increasingly multi-domain global contest for power.
