UPHESC Assistant Professor Military Science 2025 PYQs

Concept: Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957) was written by Henry Kissinger.

1. It criticised "massive retaliation" and argued for limited (including limited nuclear) war options.
2. Andre Beaufre wrote Introduction to Strategy and Deterrence and Strategy; Lenin and Marx predate nuclear weapons.

Short trick: Kissinger 1957 – limited war vs massive retaliation.

Concept: Kautilya's Mandala (circle of states) is drawn around the Vijigishu – the ambitious king 'desirous of conquest'.

1. All other states (ari, mitra, ari-mitra, mitra-mitra, parshnigraha, akranda, madhyama, udasina…) are defined by their position relative to the Vijigishu.
2. Hence the Vijigishu is the centre of gravity of the whole Mandala.

Short trick: Mandala = circles around the Vijigishu.

Concept: Hedley Bull (The Anarchical Society, 1977): "War is organised violence carried on by political units against each other."

1. Bull stresses that violence is war only when it is organised and carried out by political units (states).
2. Clausewitz: war is continuation of policy; Liddell Hart: indirect approach; Jomini: principles of operations.

Short trick: Bull – "organised violence by political units".

Concept: The Long March (1934–35) was the strategic retreat of the Chinese Red Army, about 10,000 km, from Jiangxi to Shaanxi.

1. It established Mao Tse-tung as leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
2. It became the foundation myth of his theory of protracted people's (guerrilla) war.

Short trick: Long March = Mao, 1934–35.

Concept: Match each classic book with its author.

1. Command of the Air (1921) – Giulio Douhet → III.
2. Deterrence and Strategy (1964) – André Beaufre → II.
3. The Absolute Weapon (1946) – Bernard Brodie → I.
4. Victory Through Air Power (1942) – Alexander de Seversky → IV.

Short trick: Air power: Douhet (1921) and Seversky (1942); nuclear: Brodie (1946); French strategist: Beaufre.

Concept: The INSTC was agreed in 2000 (St Petersburg) by India, Iran and Russia.

1. It is a 7,200 km multimodal (ship, rail, road) route: Mumbai → Bandar Abbas/Chabahar (Iran) → Caspian Sea → Astrakhan/Moscow (Russia).
2. It bypasses the Suez route and Pakistan, cutting time and cost.

Short trick: INSTC founders = I-I-R: India, Iran, Russia (2000).

Concept: Psychological warfare uses propaganda to break the enemy's will and morale without (or before) physical combat.

1. (A) is the standard textbook view: well-aimed propaganda can achieve more than armed force.
2. (R) WWI is the classic example – British propaganda (Crewe House, Northcliffe) undermined German home-front and troop morale; Ludendorff and Hitler themselves blamed Germany's defeat on its weaker propaganda.
3. So the WWI case illustrates and explains the power claimed in (A).

Short trick: WWI: British propaganda beat German morale – proof that propaganda is a weapon.

Concept: Arrange by period (birth years).

1. Machiavelli – 1469 (The Prince, Art of War).
2. Jomini – 1779 (Summary of the Art of War, 1838).
3. Clausewitz – 1780 (On War, 1832).
4. Marx – 1818. Order: I, II, IV, III.

Short trick: Renaissance Machiavelli → Napoleonic pair Jomini (1779) then Clausewitz (1780) → Marx (1818).

Concept: Match each strategist with his doctrine.

1. Douhet – theory of air power (command of the air) → IV.
2. Fuller – Plan 1919 (massed tank breakthrough to paralyse German command) → II.
3. J.F. Dulles – Massive Retaliation (1954) → I.
4. Liddell Hart – Indirect Approach → III.

Short trick: Air-Douhet, Tank Plan 1919-Fuller, Massive Retaliation-Dulles, Indirect Approach-Liddell Hart.

Concept: Strategy links ends, ways and means – it gives purpose and direction to action.

1. (A) is true: strategy is indispensable for purposeful action and for outwitting opponents.
2. (R) is true: without strategy action becomes random and directionless.
3. (R) states exactly why there is "no substitute for strategy" – so it explains (A).

Short trick: No strategy → no direction; that is why strategy has no substitute.

Concept: Military Keynesianism is an economic policy idea: governments raise military spending to boost aggregate demand, employment and growth (Keynesian demand management).

1. Examples: US Cold War spending, Reagan-era defence build-up.
2. It is a theory of economics, applied through the defence budget.

Short trick: Keynes = economist → military Keynesianism = economic ideology.

Concept: After the 1962 war with China, India adopted its first Five-Year Defence Plan for 1964–69.

1. It aimed at a 825,000-strong Army, a 45-squadron Air Force, modernisation of the Navy and growth of defence production.
2. 1951–56 was the First (economic) Five-Year Plan, not a defence plan.

Short trick: 1962 shock → 1964–69 first Defence Plan.

Concept: An offset obliges the foreign vendor to plough back part of the contract value into the buyer country.

1. In India's DAP, contracts above ₹2,000 crore carry an offset obligation (generally 30%).
2. It is discharged through technology transfer, investment, local manufacture and purchase from Indian industry.

Short trick: Offset = part of the money comes back as technology and investment.

Concept: Match each idea with its originator.

1. Saptanga (seven limbs of the state) – Kautilya → IV.
2. Indirect approach – Liddell Hart → III.
3. Plan 1919 – J.F.C. Fuller → II.
4. Socialism and War (1915) – Lenin → I.

Short trick: Code reads IV-III-II-I – perfectly reversed.

Concept: UN peacekeeping rests on consent, impartiality and minimum use of force.

1. Its core task is to monitor ceasefires/truce lines and keep a stable environment for a political settlement.
2. Sanctions are imposed by the Security Council (Art. 41), not by peacekeepers; trade and arms facilitation are not their role.

Short trick: Peacekeepers = monitors of ceasefire ("blue helmets between the lines").

Concept: The Readiness for the Future of Production Report (first 2018) is published by the World Economic Forum (with A.T. Kearney).

1. It assesses 100 countries on the drivers and structure of production for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
2. WEF also publishes the Global Competitiveness, Global Gender Gap and Global Risks reports.

Short trick: Future of Production / Industry 4.0 reports = WEF.

Concept: Standard risk formula: Risk = Threat × Vulnerability × Impact (consequence).

1. Threat – who/what may attack; Vulnerability – weakness that can be exploited; Impact – damage if exploited.
2. Economic or social power are not elements of the risk equation.

Short trick: Cyber risk = T × V × I.

Concept: Akash is a medium-range surface-to-air missile developed by DRDO under the IGMDP; often called India's "Iron Dome" style air-defence shield.

1. Produced by BDL and BEL; range about 25–30 km (Akash-NG ~70 km); used by the Army and IAF.
2. ISRO, NASA and JAXA are space agencies, not missile developers.

Short trick: Missiles of IGMDP (Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Nag, Akash) = DRDO.

Concept: Apsara, at Trombay (BARC), went critical on 4 August 1956 – India's and Asia's first research reactor.

1. Cirus (Canada-India Reactor) – 1960; Zerlina – 1961; Purnima – 1972; Dhruva – 1985.
2. Apsara was designed and built by Indian scientists under Homi J. Bhabha.

Short trick: A for Apsara = first (1956).

Concept: The Space Commission and the Department of Space were set up in 1972 (June 1972); ISRO was brought under DOS.

1. 1962 – INCOSPAR under the DAE (Vikram Sarabhai).
2. 1969 – ISRO formed (15 August).
3. 1975 – Aryabhata launched.

Short trick: INCOSPAR 1962 → ISRO 1969 → Space Commission/DOS 1972 → Aryabhata 1975.