2 - The Transformation of India's Foreign Policy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
The Past as Prologue
From the vantage point of the Cold War's end, India's pursuit of a foreign policy based upon nonalignment now appears quaint at best and hypocritical at worst. It appears quaint because after its initial phase the policy ill-served India's interest and appears hypocritical because the country often failed to live up to its cherished principles. This was especially true after it signed a treaty of “peace, friendship and cooperation” with the Soviet Union effectively aligning India with the Soviet Union. Yet some understanding of the historical context that spawned the doctrine reveals that it was not bereft of utility to India's national interests.
Prime Minister Nehru, who was the principal architect of independent India's foreign policy, had fashioned this doctrine for a number of compelling reasons. Perhaps the most compelling were the memories of British colonial domination. Consequently, the notion of subordinating the nascent country's foreign policy to the interests and proclivities of either emergent superpower bloc was repugnant. Nehru was also acutely concerned about the possibilities of Bonapartism and the militarization of Indian society. Associating India with one of the two power blocs could, in his view, lead India to divert its scarce resources toward unwanted military spending. Finally, nonalignment was also part of a larger strategy to transform the global order. Nehru and others had hoped that it would contribute to the strength of multilateral fora, hobble the use of force in international politics, reduce global inequalities, and bring an end to the last remnants of colonialism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- India Since 1980 , pp. 18 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
, “The Inception of Indian Foreign Policy: The Non-Nehru Contribution,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 4:2 (1982): 63–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “From the Defense of the Nation to Aid to the Civil: The Army in Contemporary India,” Journal of Asian and African Affairs 26 (1991): 1–12Google Scholar
, “The Third World Challenge: The Fate of Nonalignment,” Foreign Affairs 59:2 (1980–1): 366–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Indian Foreign Policy in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, 1947–1964 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968)Google Scholar
, The Defense of India: A Budgetary Perspective on Strategy and Politics (New York: Macmillan, 1978)Google Scholar
, India's Quest for Security: Defence Policies, 1947–1965 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967)Google Scholar
, India's Nuclear Option: Atomic Diplomacy and Decision Making (New York: Praeger, 1976)Google Scholar
, Structural Conflict: The Third World against Global Liberalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985)Google Scholar
, Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions since 1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001)Google Scholar
, ed., Indira Gandhi's India: A Political System Re-Appraised (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1978)Google Scholar
, Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India's New Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003)Google Scholar
, “The Second Image Reversed: The Domestic Consequences of International Politics,” International Organization 32:4 (1978): 881–912CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “India and the Post-Cold-War World: Opportunities and Challenges,” Asian Survey 31:9 (1991): 862–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “South Asia after the Cold War,” The Washington Quarterly 15:4 (1992): 173–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “India and Israel: An Emerging Partnership,” in India as an Emerging Power, ed. (London: Frank Cass and Company, 2003), 192–206Google Scholar
, “Afghanistan and the Soviet-Indian Influence Relationship,” Asian Survey 23:3 (March 1983): 244–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Trust and Mistrust in International Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005)Google Scholar
, a former Indian foreign secretary, “Afghanistan: A Neutral Solution,” Foreign Policy 47:3 (Summer 1982): 139–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Soviet Policy towards South Asia since 1970 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1985)Google Scholar
, India's Quest for Power: Indira Gandhi's Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1982)Google Scholar
, Nuclear Weapons Proliferation in the Indian Subcontinent (New York: Palgrave, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , Fearful Symmetry: India and Pakistan in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004)Google Scholar
, Ethnic Conflict in India: A Case-Study of Punjab (New Delhi: Palgrave, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, What's Happening to India? Punjab, Ethnic Conflict, Mrs. Gandhi's Death, and the Test for Federalism (New York: Holmes and Meyer, 1986)Google Scholar
, India's Green Revolution: Economic Gains and Political Costs (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971)Google Scholar
, “Political Violence and Terrorism in India: The Crisis of Identity,” in Terrorism in Context, ed. Martha Crenshaw (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994)Google Scholar
, , , and , Brasstacks and Beyond: Perception and the Management of Crisis in South Asia (New Delhi: Manohar, 1989)Google Scholar
, Deadly Connections: States that Sponsor Terrorism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Hopes of Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)Google Scholar
, Perspectives on Kashmir: The Roots of Conflict in South Asia (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992)Google Scholar
, Democracy and Violent Separatism in India: Kashmir in Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar
, Deterrence in American Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974)Google Scholar
, A Ridge Too Far: War in the Kargil Heights 1999 (Patiala, India: Motibagh Palace, 2001)Google Scholar
, “Pakistan's Never-ending Story: Why the October Coup Was No Surprise,” Foreign Affairs 79:2 (2000): 2–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , , , , , , and , The Lessons of Mumbai (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2009)Google Scholar
, “The Macedonian Syndrome: An Historical Model of International Relations and Political Development,” World Politics 23:4 (1971): 665–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Sino-Indian Border Talks, 1981–1989: A View from New Delhi,” Asian Survey 29:12 (1989): 1123–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Lessons of a ‘Lesson’: China-Vietnam, 1979,” in The Lessons of Recent Wars in the Third World, vol. 1, Approaches and Case Studies, ed. and (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1985), ch. 7Google Scholar
, The Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), 219–20Google Scholar
, “Chinese-Indian Relations and the Process of Building Confidence: Implications for the Asia Pacific,” The Pacific Review 9:1 (1996): 58–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Sino-Indian Diplomatic Negotiations: A Preliminary Assessment,” Strategic Analysis 22:12 (March 1999): 1821–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “China-India Relations since Pokhran II: Assessing Sources of Conflict and Cooperation,” AccessAsia Review 3:2 (2000): 5–36Google Scholar
, India and the United States: Estranged Democracies, 1941–1991 (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1992)Google Scholar
, “Of Great Hopes and Bitter Disappointments: U.S. Policy toward India during the Johnson Administration,” Asian Affairs 15:4 (1988–9): 212–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Tilt Policy Revisited: Nixon-Kissinger Geopolitics and South Asia,” Asian Survey 20:4 (1980): 339–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Big Emerging Markets,” The Columbia Journal of World Business 31:2 (Summer 1996): 6–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Missed Opportunities and Contradictory Policies: Indo-American Relations in the Clinton-Rao Years,” Pacific Affairs 69:4 (1996–7): 499–517CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Changing Perceptions of India in the United States Congress,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 28:1 (2001): 37–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004)Google Scholar
, “Campaign 2000: Promoting the National Interest,” Foreign Affairs 79:1 (2000): 45–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Understanding the Bush Doctrine,” Political Science Quarterly 118:3 (Fall 2003): 365–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Death of American Internationalism,” World Policy Journal 20:2 (Spring 2003): 1–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Evolution of U.S.-Indian Ties: Missile Defense in an Emerging Strategic Relationship,” International Security 304 (Spring 2006): 113–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “South Asia after the Cold War,” The Washington Quarterly 15:4 (Autumn 1992): 173–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “India: Global Partner or Nuclear Threat?” The Wall Street Journal, March 4–5, 2006, A7Google Scholar
and , “The Case for the U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement,” World Policy Journal 23:2 (Summer 2006): 11–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, India's Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999)Google Scholar
, The Making of the Indian Atomic Bomb: Science, Secrecy and the Postcolonial State (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998)Google Scholar
, “India's Pathway to Pokhran II: The Sources and Prospects of India's Nuclear Weapons Program,” International Security 23:4 (1999): 148–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, India's Emerging Nuclear Posture: Between Recessed Deterrent and Ready Arsenal (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2001)Google Scholar
, “Why India Joined the Nuclear Club,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 39:4 (1982): 30–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Tracking Nuclear Proliferation: A Guide in Maps and Charts (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1998)Google Scholar
, India's Ad Hoc Arsenal: Direction or Drift in Defense Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar
, “India's Nuclear and Space Programs,” World Politics 38:2 (January 1986): 315–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Unrealized Promise of International Institutions: The Test Ban Treaty and India's Nuclear Breakout,” Security Studies 12:4 (Summer 2003): 116–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Nationalist Indian Attitudes towards Asia: A Troublesome Legacy for Post-Independence Indian Foreign Policy,” Pacific Affairs 55:2 (1982): 210–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Politics and Economics of India's Foreign Policy (London: C. Hurst and Company, 1994), 237–8Google Scholar
, “Cooperation among Maritime Security Forces: Imperatives for India and Southeast Asia,” Strategic Analysis 29:2 (2005): 295–317Google Scholar
, “Containment with Chinese Characteristics: Beijing Hedges against the Rise of India,” Asian Outlook 3 (September 2006), http://www.aei.org/outlook/24873 (accessed January 15, 2011)Google Scholar
, “India's Strategic Autonomy and Rapprochment with the U.S.,” Strategic Analysis 34:4 (July 2010): 611–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005)Google Scholar
, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs Press, 2004)Google Scholar
, Impossible Allies: Nuclear India, United States and the Global Order (New Delhi: India Research Press, 2006)Google Scholar
, Asian Diplomacy: The Foreign Ministries of China, India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand (Malta and Geneva, Switzerland: DiploFoundation, 2007)Google Scholar
, “The Capacity to Engage,” Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review 33 (December 2009): 7–12Google Scholar