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Naval Cooperation: A View from India
A man of war is the best ambassador.
Commander Manav Sehgal, IN
2009 Winner Open Section
Oliver Cromwell 1
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘cooperation’ as ‘working together to achieve
something’. Nation states may be said to cooperate when in order to realise their
own goals, they modify policies to meet the preferences of other states. ‘Conflict’ and
‘cooperation’ between states can be explained through the analogy of two slabs of cake
laid end to end as shown in Figure 1. 2
CONFLICT
COOPERATION
NORMAL STRAIN CRISIS WAR
Figure 1: A Conflict Cooperation Model (Geoffrey Till)
History bears testimony that there is a close connection between state relations and
military interaction. That is why nation states guardedly deploy their military forces either
with (cooperation) or against other nations (conflict). This is also the reason why nations
find it easier to cooperate in other fields such as economy, culture, scientific research, than
in the field of security. The end of the Cold War standoff has led to the abolition of a major
cause of global and related regional insecurities. In the changed world order, irregular
non-traditional threats are overtaking conventional forms originating from nation state
adversaries. While the latter can be countered through military deterrence, dealing with