7 The Security Environment 1.10 The security challenges facing India are varied and complex. India has two unsettled borders. The country has experienced four major conventional border wars besides an undeclared war fought in Kargil in 1999. She is engaged in an externally abetted proxy war for the last several years in Jammu and Kashmir and has been combating terrorism perpetuated by militant and terrorist groups sponsored by a foreign State. At the same time, a number of insurgencies, spurred by tribal and ethnic aspirations in addition to left wing ideologies are being tackled in various parts of the country. A number of nuclear weapon states are in India’s neighbourhood; hostile, radical or fundamentalist elements gaining access to and posing a threat with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is also a possibility. It is in such an environment that the Indian Army is required to fulfil its roles in varied operating conditions across the entire spectrum of conflict. Nature of Future Warfare 1.11 Like terrorism today, the likelihood of ‘asymmetric wars’ becoming the form of warfare of tomorrow is being discussed quite widely. Nonetheless, the fact that all countries continue to lay emphasis on preparedness for conventional war, underscores the predominant view that asymmetric wars cannot replace conventional wars, even though they can very much become an adjunct of and influence conventional wars themselves. 1.12 Future wars are likely to be characterised by: Emerging at short notice, being of short duration and being fought at high tempo and intensity. • • Non-linear conduct of operations. Deeper and wider combat zones due to increased reach of integral firepower and surveillance resources, including space-based systems. •