Notes by Dehran

Picked up "Preparing India for an Age of Perpetual Strategic Contestations" by Lt Gen DP Pandey. @LtGenDPPandey A soldier's take on the new geometry of war, power & intelligence. Eager to read, learn & share my notes here. Watch this space for insights from the General’s Book. #Geopolitics #NationalSecurity @ChinarcorpsIA @TinyDhillon

Since 1945, wars are no longer won by mass armies in decisive battles. Rupert Smith calls the new era “war amongst the people.” Key ideas from The Utility of Force 🧵 👇 #ModernWarfare #Geopolitics

A drone finds you. You have 7 seconds. What do you do? 7 lessons from John Antal’s 7 Seconds to Die: 🧵 1/ The Speed of Modern Lethality John F. Antal's 7 Seconds to Die takes its title from the tiny window soldiers have to react once a loitering munition is detected overhead. Speed in decision and action now decides survival. #ModernWarfare #DroneTech @KTB_500 @TimOnPoint @jameskgreer77 @JohnAntal

Michael Pillsbury argues that China's hawks have been running a 100-year race to replace America by 2049. 5 lessons from The Hundred-Year Marathon 🧵 1/ It's a race with a finish line. Judge a rival by its time horizon, not this year's headlines. #Geopolitics #China

6/ Recap: 1. A race with a finish line. 2. Hide the ambition. 3. Kill with a borrowed sword. 4. Two charts, one relationship. 5. What goes unpriced gets repeated. The thesis is debated. The discipline isn't: study the long game. #BookTwitter #Geopolitics

My next Read👇

3/ "Kill with a borrowed sword": attack using the strength of another. Pillsbury's account: Beijing drew Soviet aid against America, then American backing against the Soviets. Before backing a partner, ask whose sword you are becoming. #Statecraft #GreatPowers

6 Recap of The Hundred Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury @mikepillsbury

Michael Pillsbury @mikepillsbury contends that China’s hawks have been engaged in a 100-year race to supplant America by 2049. Five lessons from The Hundred-Year Marathon 🧵

5/ Aggressive move. Complaints. Essentially no price. Political gains banked. Repeat. Pillsbury's fix starts with counting: an annual report of all US agency assistance to China. What goes unpriced gets repeated. #Deterrence #GrandStrategy

4/ Americans see relations that ebb and flow. Beijing, he says, assumes constant US hostility and deception. One mistranslation hid it: Kissinger heard "leaders" where the meaning was "wrongdoers and tyrants." Read a rival in its own terms. #Diplomacy #Intelligence

2/ "Never ask the weight of the emperor's cauldrons." Don't let a rival know you are one until it's too late to stop you. Deng's version: hide your ambitions, build your capability. Watch what is being built, not what is said. #Strategy #Deception

3/ The Synergy of Fire and Manoeuvre Fire without manoeuvre is indecisive. Maneuver without fire is fatal. Victory comes from using fires to enable manoeuvre, so mobile striking power can close the range and disintegrate enemy cohesion. #TacticalEdge #CombinedArms

Book The Evolution of Operational Art: From Napoleon to the Present, edited by John Andreas Olsen and Martin van Creveld, provides a comprehensive overview of how military planning has bridged the gap between grand strategy and local tactics over the last two centuries. Here are 5 top takeaways from my highlights:

5/ The Shift to "War Amongst the People" The paradigm has shifted from industrial war to war amongst the people. This new reality makes it harder to define success, identify the theatre of operations, or manage multinational strategic direction. Today’s operational artists must orchestrate not just firepower, but information and resourcesto achieve complex political goals. #FutureOfWar #InternationalRelations

4/ From Kill Chain to AI Kill Web The traditional kill chain is becoming an AI-enabled kill web. Machine speed is now needed to synchronise the Internet of Battlefield Things and deliver cross-domain effects in real time. #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureWar

2/ The Transparency of the Battlespace The modern battlespace runs on a lethal equation: Seen + Hit = Kill. To break it, forces must master masking and full-spectrum deception, limiting their electromagnetic signature to avoid precision fires. #StealthTech #MilitaryStrategy

"7 Seconds to Die" in 7 lines. 1. Speed decides survival. 2. Seen + Hit = Kill. 3. Fires must enable manoeuvre. 4. Kill chain becomes AI kill web. 5. Sensors outrank strike systems. 6. The info war is decisive. 7. Armour needs 9 design parameters. #7SecondsToDie #FutureWar

Save above 1 pg summary card and read below for explanation of each lesson. 👇

🧵 A Masterclass in Military Thought: 6 Key Takeaways from "On Operations" by B.A. Friedman Friedman's work challenges modern military dogma, stripping away unnecessary jargon to reveal the true mechanics of warfare. Here’s how you can rethink operational art.👇