Statecraft and Foreign Policy

Front matter

STATECRAFT AND FOREIGN POLICY

1947-2023

INDIA

Contents

List of figures List of tables List of boxes List of abbreviations Author biographies Foreword

Kanti Bajpai

Preface 1 Introduction

Part 3: India’s multilateral engagements 11 Globalization and India: trade, international organizations and aid

15 Conclusion

CONTENTS

293 317

List of figures

1.1

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5 8.1

8.2

11.4

12.1

Toolbox: domestic and international constraints

on foreign policy

Gross domestic product per capita (current

US$): Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) and Pakistan, 1960-2021 BJP’s political dominance now matches the Congress’s dominance of the 1980s

Openness Index for India

Openness Index for China

Openness Index for the United States

Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (current US$) and GDP per capita growth (annual %): China and India, 1961-2021

Foreign direct investment (FDI), net inflows (balance of payments, current US$): China and India, 1979-2021 (US$ billion)

Arms exports to India by country, 2011-20, top 9 Personal remittances received (current US$ million), top 10 countries: India, Mexico, Philippines, France, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam, 1980-2021

India’s trading partners: top 12 import, top 12 export and trade balance (US$ billion), 2020

India’s exports (US$ thousand): all products, top

India’s exports (US$ thousand): all products, by region, 1988-2020

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) tariff rate, applied, weighted mean, primary

Annual CO, emissions by geographic region, 1950-2019

100 100

136 150

12.2

12.3

15.1

15.2

Global top 5 solar energy producing countries, 2011-21 (terawatt-hours)

Global top 5 wind energy producing countries, 2011-21 (terawatt-hours)

Toolbox expanded: domestic and international constraints on foreign policy

Global public perception of India and China over time, ‘very and mostly favourable’, 2000-22 (%)

LIST OF FIGURES

List of tables

1.1 1.2

2.1

2.2

2.3

4.1

8.1

8.2

8.3

8.4

8.5 8.6

8.7

8.8

9.1

9.2 9.3

10.1

Country bio of India

India: major events and prime ministers since independence

Tools of ‘persuasion’: who had what in 2020? (global rank in brackets)

India’s disputes (selected): resolved and ongoing Kashmir conflict timeline

Losses in the 1971 war

Economic complexity in 2020: China and India (US$, world rank in brackets)

Top exports by product type: China and India (US$), 2020 data

Top export destinations for China and India (US$,

% of total exports in brackets), 2020 data

Meetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping

India—China, 1993-2023: a critical chronology Global arms trade (US$ million): top 10 recipient countries, 2017-21

Global arms trade (US$ million): top 10 supplier countries, 2017-21

Arms trade: India’s imports (US$ million):

top supplier countries, 2017-21

Intra-state conflicts in India after independence Inter-state conflicts involving India after independence India’s exports to and imports from South Asian countries, 2019 onwards: value, % of India’s global trade, top product groups and trade balance

Trade between the European Union and India in 2020, by product categories and subcategories

140 141 xi xii

11.1

11.2

11.3

12.1

12.2

12.3

India’s imports, exports and trade balance

(US$ billion), 2019

India’s trading partners: top 12 import, top 12 export and trade balance (US$ billion), 2019

GATT and WTO negotiation rounds and selected ministerial conferences since the 1980s: negotiations and developing countries’ role

Biggest emitters in 2021 (China, United States, EU, India, Russia, Japan): global share, per capita consumption, growth rate, 2011-21 and primary energy consumption by source

The eight National Missions from the Indian 2008 National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) Climate change institutions in India: beyond ministries and missions

LIST OF TABLES

List of boxes

Nuclearization

Kargil conflict

Mahatma Gandhi

Aksai Chin

Caste system

Partition

Line of Control (LoC)

Jammu and Kashmir

Nehru-—Gandhi family

Non-alignment

McMahon Line

Tashkent Agreement

Simla Agreement

Indo-Lanka Accord

Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) Narasimha Rao

Ayodhya conflict

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Lahore Declaration Confidence-building measures (CBMs) Manmohan Singh

Indian Ocean

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Hambantota Port

Climate change

Impact of climate change International climate change agreements The Indian Ocean and global security

TRIMs | Agreement on All WTO members signed the TRIMs Trade-Related Agreement during the Uruguay Round Investment negotiations. It applies to countries’ Measures regulation of foreign investors and their

industrial policy, and restricts preferential treatment of domestic firms.

AFSPA | Armed Forces An Act of the Indian Parliament from 1958 Special Powers Act | granting special powers to the Indian Armed

Forces to maintain public order in ‘disturbed areas’. An Act passed in 1990 was applied to Jammu and Kashmir and has been in force since then.

Article | Article 370 Gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir

370 of the Indian (J&K), a northern region of the subcontinent Constitution which was administered by India as a state from 1954 until 31 October 2019 (with

a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the internal administration).

In 2019, it was revoked by a two-thirds majority in both houses of India’s Parliament.

J&K split into the Union Territory of Jammu &

Kashmir; and Union Territory of Ladakh.

ASEAN | Association of Regional intergovernmental organization Southeast Asian comprising 10 countries in Southeast Asia. Nations

AUKUS Security alliance for the Indo-Pacific region between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, dating back to September 2021. It entails sharing defence technologies with the aim to prepare for a potential threat to regional security by China.

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BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party

Current ruling political party of India. One of the two major Indian political parties.

Parliamentary Chairperson: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

Acronym for these five major emerging economies. There have been annual summits of this association since 2009.

CTBT

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

A multilateral treaty that aims to ban all nuclear tests, for military and civilian purposes. The United Nations General Assembly adopted it in September 1996.

However, it has not yet entered into force,

as all 44 individually named states known

or believed to have nuclear reactors capable of making material required for a nuclear bomb have ratified it in their own legislatures. To date, eight of these 44 states still have

not ratified the treaty — including India and Pakistan. The CTBT was initially proposed during the 1950s by the ‘big five’ nuclear powers — the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France.

CWC

Congress Working Committee

The executive committee of the Indian National Congress consists of 15 elected members and is headed by the Working President, Sonia Gandhi. Given the oftencriticized nature of centralized decision making in the Indian National Congress, the CWC is unofficially referred to as the ‘High Command’.

EU

European Union

A political and economic union in Europe with 27 member states. The EU has an internal single market, with free movement of people, goods, services and capital.

Nineteen EU member states form a monetary union (currency: euro).

GATT

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

An international agreement, signed in 1947, to promote international trade by eliminating or reducing trade barriers such as quotas or tariffs. Successor: WTO.

xvi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS WITH GLOSSARY

Group of Twenty An intergovernmental forum comprised of the world’s largest economies. It deals with major global issues such as international financial stability, the global economy, sustainable development and climate change. Members are the European Union (EU) - represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank — as well as Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United States (group 1), India, Russia, South Africa, Turkey (group 2), Argentina, Brazil, Mexico (group 3), France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom (group 4), and China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea (group 5). The chair of the G20 leaders’ meeting rotates between the aforementioned groups, which internally negotiate whose turn it is to be the chair. Other international organizations, countries and NGOs are invited to be present at the summits, some on a permanent basis.

Hindi-Chini bhai Literally means: ‘Indians and Chinese are bhai brothers’. The term was coined by the Nehru administration during the initial euphoria following India’s independence. It expressed the hope invested in a new post-colonial Asia as an independent force in world politics.

However, after the 1950s border conflicts, the 1962 war between India and China, and unresolved border issues such as Aksai Chin and the McMahon Line, the slogan began to lose its lustre.

INC

Indian National One of the two major political parties in India. Congress Often called the Congress party or simply Congress. Parliamentary Chairperson: Sonia

Gandhi.

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IPKF

Indian Peace Keeping Force

The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was part of a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. The mandate of

the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord was to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military. The main mission of the IPKF was to disarm the various militant groups, not just the LTTE.

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

An international organization that aims to foster the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to prevent its military use, including in the form of nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established in 1957 and is an autonomous organization that reports to the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. Its headquarters are in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA and its former Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

IMF

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international financial institution consisting of 190 countries. Its mission is to foster global monetary cooperation, financial stability, international trade, high employment and sustainable economic growth, and to reduce poverty. It was created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference based on the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes. It started its operations in 1945 with 29 member countries and the mission of reconstructing the international monetary system. At the core of the IMF’s mission is

the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises. Its members contribute financial resources

to a pool through a quota system from which countries with balance of payments problems can borrow funds. Its headquarters are in Washington, DC, United States.

xviii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS WITH GLOSSARY

INSTC | International The International North-South Transport North-South Corridor (INSTC) is a network of ship, rail Transport Corridor | and road routes for freight transportation between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.

IR International The study of politics, economics and Relations law on a global level. Also referred to as International Affairs (IA), International Studies (IS), Global Studies (GS) or Global Affairs (GA).

LTTE Liberation Tigers | The LTTE was a Tamil militant organization.

of Tamil Eelam

The LTTE aimed to secure an independent state of Tamil Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka, where it was based. The LTTE

was formed as a response to Sri Lankan government policies that were widely considered to be discriminatory against the minority of Sri Lankan Tamils. Oppressive actions carried out by (majority) Sinhalese mobs included anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956, 1958 and 1977, and the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library. The LTTE was founded in 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran.

After the week-long ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, the LTTE escalated the sporadic conflict into a full-scale insurgency, which became the Sri Lankan Civil War.

More than 30 countries, including the European Union, Canada, the United States and India, labelled the LTTE a terrorist organization.

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LAC

Line of Actual Control

Refers to the contested border between India and the People’s Republic of China. The LAC runs in the west through sections India claims in Aksai Chin, a less controversial ‘middle sector’ along India’s states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal and, in the east, through a disputed section in Arunachal Pradesh. On the night of 15 June 2020, Indian and Chinese soldiers fought each other at

the LAC. The clash resulted in the death

of 20 Indian soldiers and an unconfirmed number of Chinese casualties. It was the first time since 1975 that there had been combat fatalities at the LAC (Schottli 2020)

LoC

Line of Control

A military control line between the Pakistaniand Indian-controlled territory of the previous princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It serves as the de facto border but does not constitute a legal international border.

Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha (‘House of the People’) is the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha.

Although both houses are formally equal in power, the Lok Sabha has the decisive voice in budgetary policy. A maximum of 545 members are directly elected by the general electorate through majority vote in singlemember constituencies. In Sanskrit ‘Lok’ means ‘people’ and ‘Sabha’ means ‘assembly’.

NDA

National Democratic Alliance

Political alliance of centre-right and right-wing parties in India, led by the BJP.

NAM

Non-Aligned Movement

A forum of 120 ‘developing world’ states

that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. Founded in 1961; initiated by the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesian President Sukarno, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito and Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah.

XX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS WITH GLOSSARY

NPT

Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty

International treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to achieve nuclear as well as full disarmament. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty came into force in 1970. So far, 190 countries have joined the Treaty but both India and Pakistan (together with Israel and South Sudan; North Korea announced its withdrawal), for reasons contained in their nuclear policy, continue to withhold signatures to the Treaty.

NSG

Nuclear Suppliers Group

A multilateral export control regime, a group of nuclear supplier countries that seek to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. India has sought membership since 2016 and has received backing from a majority of the 48 members.

Panchasheela

The five principles of peaceful coexistence which were agreed to by Nehru, Nasser of Egypt, Tito of Yugoslovia and Sukarno of Indonesia, in the Bandung Conference of 1954.

Panchasheela Agreement

1954 agreement between India and China on trade and relations between ‘Tibet Region of China’ and India. Its preamble entails the first formal codification of the ‘Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’: 1) Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, 2) mutual non-aggression,

3) mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, 4) equality and mutual benefit, 5) peaceful coexistence. In Sanskrit,

‘panch’ means ‘five’ and ‘sheela’ are virtues.

xxi

Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha (‘House of States’) is the upper house in the Indian Parliament.

Together with the Lok Sabha, it forms the legislative body of the Indian state. It has 245 members. The legislatures of the states and union territories elect 233 of them. The Indian President nominates the remaining 12 members. The Rajya Sabha has a term of six years, with one-third of its members retiring every two years.

Satyagraha

Satyagraha is a philosophy of non-violent resistance and means ‘holding on to truth’.

Mahatma Gandhi employed it against British colonial rule in India and apartheid in South Africa. Gandhi used the term to refer to ‘civil disobedience’. Satyagraha includes three core principles. Firstly, sat — truth, honesty and fairness. Secondly, ahimsa — non-violence and refusal to inflict injury upon others.

Thirdly, tapasya — willingness and effort for self-sacrifice. Thousands of followers joined Mahatma Gandhi in April 1930 on his Salt Satyagraha. This was a 390 km march to the coastal town of Dandi in Gujarat, where, on 6 April, Gandhi broke the British salt tax, a tax that declared the private production or collection of salt illegal.

SCO

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation,

also called Shanghai Pact, is a political, economic and security alliance, comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (the founding members of the 1996 mutual security agreement ‘Shanghai Five’, SCO’s predecessor), Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan (the latter two joined in 2017). Some other countries are associated as observers

or partners. The SCO meets once a year and conducts regular military exercises to promote cooperation, for example, against terrorism and to foster regional peace and stability.

xxii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS WITH GLOSSARY

SAARC

South Asian Association

for Regional Cooperation

Regional intergovernmental organization of South Asian states. Members: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SIPRI

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Research institute based in Stockholm, focused on armed conflict, military expenditure, arms trade, disarmament and arms control.

Swadeshi

Swadeshi means ‘of one’s own country/made from its own resources’. It was used to refer

to the consumption of only homemade goods.

Swadeshi was used as a call to boycott British goods in favour of Indian products, in order

to encourage self-sufficiency, particularly in cottage-industry items such as hand-loomed cloth. Mahatma Gandhi popularized Swadeshi during the freedom struggle.

Swaraj

Swaraj means self-rule or self-determination.

It often refers to the concept developed by Mahatma Gandhi during the independence struggle. Gandhi expressed this in his well-known pamphlet Hind Swaraj. The term is derived from Hindi. It is used in the political rhetoric of subnational movements in

South Asia to demand a homeland or more autonomy for a particular region or ethnic minority. It also has been used to support the economic policy of protectionism aimed at creating a self-sufficient Indian market.

TRIPs

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

All WTO members signed the TRIPs Agreement during the Uruguay Round negotiations. It established a regulatory standard for intellectual property and applies to citizens of other WTO members.

xxiii xxiv

USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The Soviet Union - officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — was a socialist state that existed from 1922 to 1991. While de jure, a federal union of multiple national republics, it was de facto highly centralized and governed as a one-party state (prior to 1990) by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was the largest country in the world, covering 11 time zones, and for four decades after World War II it was a global superpower alongside the United States. The USSR was dissolved by President Yeltsin in 1991.

UNHRC

United Nations Human Rights Council

A United Nations body with the mission to promote and protect human rights globally.

The UNHRC has 47 members, who are elected for rotated three-year terms on a regional group basis. It investigates accusations of human rights breaches and focuses on human rights matters such as freedom of expression, association and assembly, belief and religion, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and rights of racial and ethnic minorities. The UNHRC was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), which had been strongly criticized for permitting countries with bad human rights records to be members. The UNHRC works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

UPA

United Progressive Alliance

Coalition of centre-left and left-wing parties in India formed after the 2004 general election and led by the INC.

WTO

World Trade Organization

An intergovernmental organization which regulates and facilitates international trade.

It started its operations in 1995 and replaced the GATT, which was established in 1948. The WTO has 164 member states that together represent over 96% of global trade and global GDP. The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property by providing a trade agreement negotiating framework.

The reduction or elimination of tariffs, quotas and other restrictions is at the heart of its mission. The WTO provides an independent dispute resolution mechanism and forbids discrimination between trading partners, with notable exceptions, for example, for national security and environmental protection.

The WTO is headquartered in Geneva,

Switzerland.

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Author biographies

Professor Subrata K. Mitra, PhD (Rochester), is an adjunct professor at DCU and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany. Professor Mitra was Head of the Department of Political Science, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University (1994-2014), Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Visiting Research Professor at NUS (2015-18). He has held visiting positions at the Maison des Sciences de (Homme and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Tsinghua University, Beijing; University of California, Berkeley; Jawaharlal Nehru University and Central University of Hyderabad, India; and Nottingham University, UK. He was educated in India and the United States. His main areas of research interest are governance, democracy in changing societies, subnational movements, rational choice theory, quantitative research, South Asian politics and security, and citizenship. His recent books include The Parliamentary Elections of 2019 in India: Democracy at the Cross-roads? (Routledge, 2022); Governance by Stealth: The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Making of the Indian State (Oxford University Press, 2022); Politics in India: Structure, Process, Policy (Routledge, 2017, 2nd edition); Kautilya’s Arthashastra: An Intellectual Biography — the Classical Roots of Modern Politics in India (Rupa, 2017); Citizenship and the Flow of Ideas (Raj Publications, 2012); Reuse: The Art and Politics of Integration and Anxiety (Sage, 2012); When Rebels Become Stakeholders (Sage, 2009); and the Puzzle of India’s Governance (Routledge, 2005). Professor Mitra is the editor of Modern South Asian Studies — Society, Politics, Economy (NOMOS, Germany) and Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies.

Dr Jivanta Schottli is Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at the School of Law and Government, DCU. She holds a PhD in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Heidelberg University in Germany, a Master’s in Economic History and a BSc in International Relations & History, both from the London School of Economics and Politics, UK. Her research interests include Indian foreign policy with a focus on the intersection between domestic politics and international relations; diplomacy and maritime governance in the Indian Ocean; the emerging strategic discourse about the Indo-Pacific; and the role of China in South Asia. Jivanta’s publications include Maritime Governance in South Asia (ed.) (World Scientific, 2018); Power, Politics and Maritime Governance xxvii xxviii in the Indian Ocean (ed.) (Routledge, 2014); and Vision and Strategy in Indian Politics (Routledge, 2012). She has written articles for Asian Survey, the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, the Journal of Asian Public Policy, the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region and Irish Studies in International Affairs.

Dr Markus Pauli is Assistant Professor in Political Science at the School of Law and Government, DCU. He has held positions in the Political Science Department at the National University of Singapore, Yale-NUS Singapore, Singapore Management University and Heidelberg University, Germany. His current research focuses on (i) The political economy of decarbonization in India and Europe; (ii) financial inclusion, microfinance and sustainable development in India; (iii) perceptions of global governance using survey experiments. Markus held a Rising Talent Fellowship at DCU and received scholarships from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University, where he received his PhD. Markus studied at the Free University, Berlin and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has co-authored publications on India’s democracy, socioeconomic development, citizenship, human security, financial inclusion and collaborative governance for the Sustainable Development Goals.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Foreword

If you want a book that is almost encyclopaedic in its coverage of India’s foreign policy, covering the period from its independence to the second decade of the new millennium, this is it. Subrata Mitra, Jivanta Schottli and Markus Pauli have done the almost impossible — they have provided a synopsis of the most important phases, relationships and issues that define the country’s policies beyond its borders. And they have done so in an engaging and sophisticated manner. Readers as diverse as undergraduate students, students in advanced programmes of study and established scholars of India will find this an accessible book, free of jargon and abstruse theorizing, and yet with a penetrating point of view.

Studies of India’s foreign policy have taken diverse approaches to laying bare its contours. International relations theory and foreign policy analysis offer a range of possibilities for analysing a country’s foreign policy. This foreword is not the place to rehearse the gamut of either Indian foreign policy studies or international relations theory and foreign policy frameworks — with a light touch, the book does that very ably. Mitra, Schottli and Pauli present us with a distinct way of thinking about India’s foreign policy — through the prism of statecraft. Statecraft has layers of meaning, one of which is invidious, namely, about how rulers (and perhaps elites) stay in power. This is one interpretation of Kautilya’s and Machiavelli’s classic works. Another meaning of statecraft is that it is what rulers and elites do to protect and advance the interests of their societies. According to this view, the ruling class may reap the fruits of sitting at the top of the political and economic hierarchy but in return they have a responsibility to deliver security and prosperity to those over whom they rule. Clearly, at any given moment, statecraft is probably a mix of both elements of statecraft — of the selfish and the more social acts of rulers and elites.

From this statecraft perspective, Mitra, Schottli and Pauli bring a flesh-and-blood perspective to India’s foreign policy. Foreign policy is one element of statecraft. In an interconnected world, it is vital: people from other countries will have a profound impact on one’s life chances, xxix

XXX and every society must have a way of dealing with other countries and peoples. The question at the heart of the book is how India’s rulers and its foreign policy apparatus have dealt with others — those in the neighbourhood, in the near-neighbourhood, farther afield and with distant but powerful countries whose influence is continental if not global. How too has India managed global issues such as international trade, development, climate change, international maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), and terrorism? Our authors also ask a difficult question, one that many scholars choose to avoid: how well has India dealt with other countries and with more cosmopolitan issues that impinge on its security and wellbeing? It is to Mitra, Schottli and Pauli’s great credit that they sensitively address this fundamental and challenging question.

The book is divided into three main parts: the evolution of India’s foreign policy during the Cold War; the changes, almost transformational, of foreign policy after the Cold War as the country’s economy gathered steam and national power grew apace; and India’s multilateral engagement in a complex world where power is becoming increasingly diffuse. There are many ways of approaching a social phenomenon for description and analysis. Mitra, Schottli and Pauli have organized the book largely chronologically — within Part 1, focusing on the Cold War era, the reader will discover how India’s prime ministers dealt with foreign policy in their time. In Part 2, focusing on the post-Cold War era, this temporal treatment gives way to an analysis of the core ‘strategic theatres’, as it were, of India’s foreign policy: nuclearization; great power relations (the US, China and Russia); bilateral relations in South Asia; and the next mandala of relationships, in West Asia, Europe and BRICS. Finally, in Part 3, the book delves into India’s multilateral engagements, where it is simultaneously seated at various regional and global negotiation tables to protect its interests while also contributing to cosmopolitan interests.

There are gaps, not surprisingly — no book can deal with everything without becoming impossibly big and unwieldy. Perhaps the most obvious gap is the absence of India’s relations with Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. The authors insist that there are turning points and key moments in foreign policy: not surprisingly the book does not discuss every single one of the critical junctures and episodes of India’s foreign policy. And yet, even a quick glance at the table of contents reveals that this is an ambitious book in its scope.

What will you learn here about the drivers of India’s foreign policy and the efficacy or achievements of its efforts to deal with the world beyond

FOREWORD its borders? The authors begin by rehearsing the conventional view that India’s foreign policy has no core, that it is mostly reactive and ad hoc, and that as a result it is marked by ‘a sense of ambiguity’, a ‘puzzling Janus-like posturing’ between selfishness and cosmopolitanism. Mitra, Schottli and Pauli do not altogether disagree with this characterization, but they give us a rather satisfying answer to why India is ambiguous and Janus-like: from a statecraft perspective, India’s foreign policy must constantly deal with forces operating on it both internationally and domestically. Its rulers and diplomats must negotiate in two directions: with external interlocutors and forums and with domestic groups and interests. These impose limitations on what is feasible within India’s foreign policy, influencing it in various ways and perhaps finally in a corrective shift. Successive chapters will depict India’s ‘double-edged diplomacy’, to use Robert Putnam’s terminology, and the resulting twists and turns in policy.

Finally, how has India done? How well has its foreign policy served the country? Throughout the book, the authors allude to and indicate their broad judgement: India has done pretty well. From Nehru to Narendra Modi, from non-alignment to strategic autonomy, from a time when India was economically and militarily weak to a time when it is arguably ‘a leading power’ (to quote Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister) on a variety of issues, India has managed a complicated and often dangerous world with relative success. Readers may agree or disagree, but Mitra, Schottli and Pauli leave us with the strong impression that contrary to the cavilling critics of India, both at home and abroad, the country’s leaders and diplomats have steered a mostly rational, pragmatic course, mindful of the limits and opportunities that face them.

I should end by saying that as I read the book, I found myself drifting away from foreign policy to think about larger issues related to Indian nationhood — to the ‘idea of India’ (in Sunil Khilnani’s phrase). Mitra, Schottli and Pauli make no secret that this is part of their endeavour — to read foreign policy as a mirror to a society. In the culture wars of contemporary India, between the right and left and centre of Indian politics, there is acrimony and a sense of irreconcilability. This cool-headed volume, as it charts India’s external relations, is suggestive of an alternative reading of India’s future.