[6] In 2015, Raghavan was chosen by India's Ministry of Defence to head a team of historians working on the official history of the Kargil War.
[2] His first book, it covered the strategic history of Jawaharlal Nehru's premiership and was published as part of The Indian Century Series edited by scholars Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani.
The editors stated in the book's preface that Raghavan has set a "benchmark" for the historical study of the strategic and foreign policy issues of India.
[11] Scholar Jivanta Schottli called it "polished historical study",[12] and Rudra Chaudhuri said it should be considered "the single most important text on Indian strategic history".
[13] Priya Chacko noted that it is meticulously researched and draws on previously untapped archival sources, such as the private papers of British officials, allowing Raghavan to circumvent the usual limitations of diplomatic history.
[14] Historian Perry Anderson finds that Srinath Raghavan is a firm apologist for India and describes his book as a hymn to Nehru's strategism.