'No Silver Medals': NSA Ajit Doval's blunt address on national security and adversary morale

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval delivers a key address at the 5th Convocation of Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) in Gandhinagar after receiving an honorary doctorate from President Droupadi Murmu. He defines the core objective of warfare as breaking the adversary’s morale and challenges conventional assessments of national power.Doval states that national security depends not only on military strength but also on technology, resources, diplomacy, human capital, and most importantly, national willpower and public awareness. He stresses that morale plays a decisive role in determining outcomes in modern conflict.Addressing graduating security professionals, he warns that there are “no silver medals” in this field, meaning outcomes are strictly binary—victory or defeat.