New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- At the 'VIMARSH' event on Operation Sindoor and its aftermath at Vivekanand International Foundation, former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday delivered a clear-eyed assessment of how national security interacts with democratic governance, emphasising that military power remains a direct extension of political will.

Invoking Carl von Clausewitz's famous axiom that war is the continuation of politics by other means, General Chauhan stated that a nation's political interests are supreme. In this framework, the armed forces operate as just one of several national instruments available to safeguard those interests.

"Let's start by saying that politics and war are inseparable. Clausewitz said ...