V. R. Raghavan

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "V. R. Raghavan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2022) This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. Please help by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. Find sources: "V. R. Raghavan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) An editor has performed a search and found that sufficient sources exist to establish the subject's notability. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "V. R. Raghavan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Lieutenant General Vasantha R. Raghavan PVSM UYSM AVSM
Allegiance	India
Service / branch	Indian Army
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	Punjab Regiment

Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Vasantha R. Raghavan is an Indian security consultant and former military general. He served in the Indian Army for 37 years, retiring as the director general of military operations in 1994. After retiring from the army, he has written several books and is currently^[when?] the director of the Delhi Policy Group and president of the Centre for Security Analysis in Chennai.

Raghavan was commissioned in the Punjab Regiment in 1957. He graduated in 1968 from the Royal Military College of Science and the Army Staff College in the UK.^[when?] He was the commanding general in the Siachen and Kargil sectors during some of the intense combat actions in the area.^[when?] He was closely involved in the formulation of the Sino-Indian accord on maintaining peace on the borders and in the series of negotiations^[when?] with Pakistan on the Siachen dispute. As director general of military operations, he was closely involved in strategic planning and field force management^[when?] of the army. He was awarded the PVSM, UYSM, and AVSM honours^[when?] by the Government of India.

Raghavan was a member of the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, set up at the initiative of the Swedish Government and headed by Hans Blix. The Commission released a report, entitled "Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms" in 2006, which proposed that nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons be outlawed and discussed the options for achieving this goal.^[1]

He was also a member of the Indian Government's Review Committee for the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which had been opposed in Manipur and other parts of North-East India.^[when?] Although the government has not published the committee's 2005 report, it was reported that the panel recommended that the act be repealed. Raghavan has argued that security should be viewed in terms of human security in societal, environmental, economic, and political terms,^{[when?][where?]} instead of the narrow military perspective.

Raghavan has written four books since retiring from military service:

• By the Land and Sea: A History of the Punjab Regiment
• India’s Need for Strategic Balance
• Infantry in India
• Siachen: Conflict Without End^[2]

He has also edited several books:

• Internal Conflicts in Myanmar
• Nuclear Disarmament - India-EU Perspective
• Internal Conflicts in Nepal- Transnational Consequences
• The Naxal Threat: Causes, State Responses and Consequence
• Conflict in Sri Lanka: Internal and External Consequences
• Conflicts in the Northeast: Internal and External Effects (jointly edited with Sanjoy Hazarika)
• Jammu and Kashmir - Impact on Polity, Society and Economy
• Post Conflict Sri Lanka - Rebuilding of Society

He has also edited more than a dozen other books and written numerous articles on strategic issues relating to India's security.

• Sumdorong Chu standoff
• Events leading to the Sino-Indian War
• Kargil War
• Origins of the Sino-Indian border dispute
• Sino-Indian War
• Sino-Indian relations

• The Hindu
• Website of Publisher of His books
• Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai Publication