BHARAT KARNAD [b: March 18, 1948]
Research Professor in National Security Studies, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, since
1996.
Official Positions:
i) Member, (First) National Security Advisory Board and Member of the Nuclear Doctrine
Drafting Group, National Security Council, Government of India, 1998-1999;
ii) Adviser, Defence Expenditure, (Tenth) Finance Commission, India, 1992-1995
Education:
B.A. in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1972
M.A. in Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 1975
Research Appointments:
Visiting Scholar jointly at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2009;
Foreign Fellow, Shanghai Institutes of International Studies, Shanghai, Spring 2010;
Ford Visiting Scholar, Program on Arms Control, Disarmament and International Studies,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, Spring 1995;
Foreign Fellow, Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, DC, Winter 1995
Books:
1). Why India Is Not a Great Power (Yet), [New Delhi: Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2015]
2). Strategic Sellout: Indian-US Nuclear Deal, coauthor with P.K. Iyengar, A.N. Prasad, and A.
Gopalakrishnan [New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2009];
3). India’s Nuclear Policy [Newport, CN, and London: Praeger Security International, October
2008; Special South Asian edition, Pentagon Press, New Delhi, November 2008];
4).Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security: The Realist Foundations of Strategy, 2nd edition
[Macmillan India, 2005];
5) Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security [New Delhi: Macmillan India, 2002]
6) Future Imperilled: India’s Security in the 1990s and Beyond, principal author & editor [New
Delhi: Penguin-Viking India, 1994].
Chapters in books:
1.“An Elephant With a Small ‘Footprint’: The Realist Roots of India’s Strategic Thought and
Policies” in India’s Grand Strategy: History, Theory, Cases, edited by Kanti Bajpai, Saira Basit, V.
Krishnappa [New Delhi & Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, 2014]
2. “Scaring-up Scenarios: An Introduction”, in Pakistan’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons: Conflict
Redux, edited by Gurmeet Kanwal and Monika Chansoria [New Delhi: Centre for Land Warfare
Studies & Knowledge World, 2014]
3. “The Cultural Context of Moralpolitik: The Traditional Indian Statecraft, Mahatma Gandhi,
and the Atom Bomb” in India’s National Security: A Reader edited by Kanti P. Bajpai and Harsh V
Pant [New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013]
4. “Strategic and Nuclear Balancing of China in the Asia-Pacific” in Asia-Pacific Region:
Assessment of the Security Architecture edited by Major General Y.K. Gera (Retd) [New Delhi:
United Service Institution of India and Vij Books, 2012]
5. “Preempting and Preventing Nuclear Terrorism” in Confronting Terrorism edited by Maroof Raza
[New Delhi: Penguin India; 2009]
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6. “Security and Sovereignty” in Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Re-conceptualizing
Security in the 21st Century , Vol. 3, Hexagon Series, edited by Hans Guntur Brauch, Peter Liotta,
et al, [Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, etc.: Verlag Springer, 2008]
7. “The India-United States Rapprochement, the Nuclear Deal, and Indian National Interest” in
Rising India: Friends and Foes edited by Prakash Nanda [New Delhi and Olympia Fields, IL:
Lancer Publications, 2007]
8. “South Asia: The Irrelevance of Classical Deterrence Theory” in Nuclear Weapons in South Asia
and International Relations Theory edited by S. Sridharan [New Delhi & Abingdon, U.K.:
Routledge, 2006]
9. “Shaping the Indian Special Forces into a Strategic Asset” in Special Forces: Doctrine, Structures
and Employment Across the Spectrum of Conflict in the Indian Context edited by Lieutenant
General Vijay Oberoi (Retd) [New Delhi: Centre for Land Warfare Studies and Knowledge World,
2006]
10. “India’s Future Plans and Defence Requirements” in Emerging India: Security and Foreign
Policy Perspectives edited by N.S. Sisodia and C. Uday Bhaskar, [New Delhi: Institute of Defence
Studies and Analyses and Promilla & Co. Publishers, 2005]
11.“Firming Up the Critical Capability Triad: Strategic Muscle, Sub-Conventional Punch, and ITenabled Network Centricity and Electro-Magnetic Warfare Clout” in Army 2020: Shape, Size,
Structure and General Doctrine for Emerging Challenges edited by Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi
(Retd) [New Delhi: Centre for Land Warfare Studies and Knowledge World, 2005]
12. “Demilitarization of LoC: Negative Strategic Ramifications” in India-Pakistan Relations:
Courting Peace from the Corridors of War, edited by P.M. Kamath [Mumbai: VPM’s Centre for
International Studies and Promilla & Co. Publishers, 2005]
13.“Deconstructing the Indian Nuclear Doctrine” in Arms Race and Nuclear Developments in South
Asia edited by Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema and Imtiaz H. Bokhari [Islamabad: Islamabad Policy
Research Institute, 2004]
14. “Minorities, Terrorism and Democratic Politics” in Current Domestic Policy Challenges and
Prospects in South Asia, Seminar Papers [Islamabad: Institute of Regional Studies, 2003]
15. “India’s Force Planning Imperative: The Thermonuclear Option” in Nuclear India in the 21st
Century edited by D.R. SarDesai and Raju G.C. Thomas [New York: Palgrave, 2002].
16. “India’s Place in the World: Democratic Peace, Raison d’etat and Cooperative Security” in
Democratic Peace: The Foreign Policy Implications edited by M.L. Sondhi [New Delhi: Indian
Council of Social Science Research and Har-Anand Publishers, 2000]
17. “India’s Posture” in Nuclear Weapons and India’s National Security edited by M.L. Sondhi [New
Delhi: Indian Council of Social Science Research and Har-Anand Publishers, 2000]
18. “A Thermonuclear Deterrent” in India’s Nuclear Deterrent: Pokhran II and Beyond edited by
Amitabh Mattoo [New Delhi: Har-Anand Publishers, 1999]
Also, research articles, review essays, and solicited responses in various professional journals,
among them, The Harvard International Review, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of
International Affairs, India Review; The Journal of Strategic Studies, South Asia Journal (Lahore);
Combat: Army War College Journal; Pinnacle: The Journal of the Army Training Command; Trishul:
The Tri-Service Professional Journal of the Defence Services Staff College; Strategic Analysis; USI
Journal; and The Indian Defence Review.
Consultation:
Consulted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and previously by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
and over the years by Defence Minister and Foreign Minister, Standing Parliamentary Committee
on Defence and Special Parliamentary Committee (when drafting the Nuclear Liability Act, 2010);
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Members of Parliament from various political parties, Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, and
individual Service Chiefs, Integrated Defence Staff, Defence Intelligence Agency & various
Directorates in Army, Navy and Air Force Headquarters.
Consultation, Contract, and Commission -- Military:
Involved in the underway effort by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence,
to define ‘National Military Objectives’, December-January 2015
Contracted by the Integrated Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence, to:
(1) shape the syllabus and conduct an annual Strategic Nuclear Orientation Course (initially at
the Centre for Policy Research in 2006, thereafter under the aegis of the Centre for Joint Warfare
Studies) for Brigadier rank officers and equivalent from the three Armed Services, 2007-2010;
(2) conceptualize, conduct, and write debrief for the Defence Minister of the first ever (three day)
integrated inter-agency war games dealing with the nuclear tripwire on the subcontinent, Army
War College, February 2003.
Lectures:
Addressed top military forums, including the Combined Operational Review and Evaluation
Program; the Annual Defence Research & Development Organization Directors' Conference; HQ
Integrated Defence Staff, Defence Intelligence Agency; Study Week and seminars at Army Theatre,
Corps and Division levels, Naval Theatre Commands – Western, Eastern, Southern; HQ Army
Training Command, National Defence College; Joint Senior Officers' Capsule; HQ Naval Aviation;
Annual Study Fortnight for Senior Officers in Nuclear Chemical & Biological Warfare, College of
Military Engineering; HQ Naval Aviation; Higher Command Courses at Army War College, College
of Naval Warfare, College of Air Warfare, College of Defence Management; and College of Materials
Management; Army Service Corps Centre and College; Defence Services Staff College; Indian
Military Academy; Air Force Academy; Phase IV Program for mid-career IAS officers and the
annual Joint Civilian-Military Program on National Security, at the IAS Academy; National Police
Academy (Home Ministry); and, the Foreign Service Institute (Ministry of External Affairs).
Abroad, he has delivered talks, among other places, at the U.S. State Department, East-West
Center, Heritage Foundation, the Atlantic Council, and the Brookings Institution in Washington,
DC; Woodrow Wilson School for International Affairs, Princeton University; Center for the
Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania; Shanghai Institutes of International Studies;
Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad; and, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies,
Singapore
Second Track Diplomacy:
Participated in official/semi-official Track 1.5/off-line dialogues with the United States, China,
and Pakistan.
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