CURRENT GEOPOLITICAL HAPPENINGS
THROUGH THE PRISM OF ‘NERVE OF LEADERSHIP’
“To a true Leader the word ‘nerve’ offers a wide gamut of
inflection, ranging from knowing the nerve, have the nerve, holding the nerve,
pressing the nerve, losing the nerve, to bundle of nerves, and even battle of
nerves; showcasing courage, spirit, audacity, guts, insolence, sarcasm, humour,
and so on with equal ease!” – Col RS Sidhu
Nerves of Steel
What differentiates a true ‘Leader’
from a ‘bureaucratic head’, in any domain, is a deep understanding of
the term ‘nerve’ in relation to leadership. Here,
identifying own and the adversary’s ‘nerves of vulnerability’ is
as critical as is the ‘inflexion point of the nerve’; the point,
quantum, and time frame, of the pressure to be applied to make it collapse.
A lot has been articulated over
centuries on leadership; is a leader required…are leaders born or made…ideal
traits of a leader…and even on the art of leadership. But when the push comes
to a shove, when confronted with a crisis situation where there is no right
choice to be made; and the decision matrix lies between confronting the
‘devil or the deep sea’, it is the ‘nerve’ of the leader that makes
the key difference between oblivion, penury or subservient existence, or
retaining ‘strategic autonomy’. This holds true in all domains, military,
geopolitical, corporate, as well as financial.
The phrase that best describes this
phenomenon is ‘nerves of steel’!
The Indian Examples
Post independence one of the foremost
display of ‘nerves of steel’ in the military domain is the action
during the 1965 War by a weak 4 Infantry Division occupying hasty defences in
the Bhikiwind – Khemkaran sector, of withstanding repeated heavy armour
assaults by Pakistan 1 Armoured Division supported by their 11 Infantry
Division. Eventually, 4 Infantry Division in conjunction with 2 (I) Armoured
Brigade, over three days of intense fighting from 8 to 10 September 1965, succeeded
in turning certain defeat into overwhelming victory. Rarely, if ever, has an
armoured division assault on an infantry brigade plus hasty defences in
favourable ‘tank country’ been defeated in annals of military history. Pakistan
offensive had all the military advantages of initiative, and overwhelming quantitative
and quality superiority of armour, but were unable to break the ‘nerve’
of the defenders.
In the financial domain, the best
example of ‘nerves of steel’ is of Gautam
Adani, the founding head of the Adani group, in withstanding the financial hit
job of the ‘Hindenburg report’ in 2023 resulting in a sharp loss
of INR 2.60 lakh crore of its market value, and loss of yet another INR 3.40
lakh crore, amounting to half its market value, in beginning 2025 consequent to
launch of bribery investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Adani group has continued to expand and diversify its business despite these massive
capital loss.
In the geopolitical domain, there is
no parallel to Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister’s decision to undertake military action
against Pakistan in 1971. With US, a superpower, and China, an inimical
and powerful neighbour, actively supporting Pakistan, exercising the option of
forcing a military decision was an extraordinary one. Setting the
geopolitical stage by seeking out the USSR umbrella, before exercising the
chosen military option, was what enabled India to withstand the coercive power
of US and China.
Looking futuristically, the
decision of the Shri Narendra Modi led government of India to maintain ‘strategic
autonomy’ in the face of POTUS Donald Trump action to browbeat India
into submission through levy of 25% trade and 25% punitive tariffs and stalling the India – US
trade deal, needs to be placed in the category of ‘nerves of steel’.
There are two factors that make this categorisation a qualifying act. First is
that this decision critically impacts all the domains of military,
geopolitics, corporate,
and finance. Secondly, India currently is by far the weakest of the ‘Big Four’
in global geopolitics, hence, the most vulnerable to geopolitical manipulations.
So only time will tell whether the decision displays ‘nerves of steel’ or
sheer foolhardiness.
The Harsh Reality of
Geopolitics
Stripped of all façade, the naked truth is
that geopolitics is the ‘game’ that nations play to pursue their
national interest. These interests could range from proactively targeting
future external threats, maintaining status quo in regional power balance, enforcing
hostile regime change, coercive employment of force to intimidate weaker
rivals, dynamics of competing ideologies, domestic political compulsions, securing
key trading routes, mineral resources, and economic markets, et al.
This is a ‘game’ only for the most
powerful. There is simply no place for ethics and
righteousness, national self-interest being the primary
guiding factor. The US ‘Monroe Doctrine’, the USSR ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’
replaced by its successor state Russia’s ‘Primakov Doctrine’, and the unilateral
‘Nine dash line’ to ‘Eleven dash line’ of China in the South
China Sea, all verify this statement.
Ongoing Geopolitical Contest of ‘Nerves
of Steel’
At this critical juncture the global geopolitical narrative
is revolving around the ‘Leadership Nerve’ of the ‘Big Four’
leaders, President Donald Trump of US, President Xi Jinping of
China, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
of India.
It is a tight contest where each of them has amply
displayed their ‘nerves of steel’ in both the domestic and geopolitical
arena, and continue to maintain a tight grip on the reins of power in their
respective countries. Interestingly, they have come to occupy their leadership space
in a near simultaneous time frame; Trump in 2017 and again in 2025, Putin in 2012,
Xi Jinping in 2013, and Modi in 2014.
These four are holding the leadership space that
matters, at a vulnerable time for the future course of humanity. Their
decisions and actions shall set the future direction of human kind for the
coming century.
The prevailing geopolitical equations, alongside
strategic options for India have already been elaborately covered in an earlier
article of 11 August 2025,
‘Trump Tariff’ Gambit Carries The Trade War Into
BRICS Camp’, that can be accessed at…
https://valleysandvalour.blogspot.com/2025/08/trump-tariff-gambit-carries-trade-war.html
There’s no change in the ibid analysis.
None of it signals any permanent
realignment of national interest. Whose ‘nerve’ breaks first is the only point of interest. But
there is concern as well, as an impasse is the surest way to sliding into a global
catastrophe.
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