Confronting Terrorism

The attacks on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 brought home to indians the full horror of terrorism. It also brought home, quite literally, the change in the contemporary face of war. War today is no longer confined to battlefields; it is right here. How is India equipped to deal with this menace, which has been described as an ‘ultramodern and very traditional conspiracy’?

In this collection of essays, nine eminent experts—strategic analysts and military historians—examine, among other issues, the capacity of india’s police and paramilitary forces to deal with well-equipped, meticulously planned terror attacks, the army’s ability to transform its ‘reactive mode’ to a more proactive approach and the complex dynamics of the nuclear terror threat and, the big question, if elements within the pakistani establishment are involved in the threat to india, what is the most effective way for the indian state to respond?