New Delhi’s New Outlook

A review essay by Teresita C. Schaffer of four books about Indian foreign policy: Challenge and Strategy: Rethinking India’s Foreign Policy, by Rajiv Sikri; India’s Foreign Policy: The Democracy Dimension, by S.D. Muni; The Long View from Delhi: To Define the Indian Grand Strategy for Foreign Policy, by Raja Menon and Rajiv Kumar; and In the National Interest: A Strategic Foreign Policy for India, by Rajiv Kumar and Santosh Kumar.

A few elements are common to all these snapshots of India’s foreign policy. The first is India’s desire to dominate its immediate neighbourhood. How it interprets the requirement for continued primacy has changed, seen most notable in the conclusion that a regular American presence in the Indian Ocean serves India’s interests (a conclusion Sikri might question). But whether or not an author places the troubled relationship with Pakistan at the top of India’s foreign-policy challenges, in all four studies, India’s determination to retain great-power status in South Asia is not open to serious question.

Originally published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the December 2010-January 2011 issue of Survival. Read the entire essay.

India and Global Nonproliferation

The Working Group on an Expanded Nonproliferation System, headed by Teresita Schaffer and Joan Rohlfing, President of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, issued a statement June 30, 2010 recommending that India and the United States declare their intention to work together to bring India into the four export control groups that form part of the nonproliferation system. They argued that this would strengthen the nonproliferation system, and that it would give India the opportunity it seeks to be part of the management of this system rather than an object of its controls.

The statement was originally appeared on the CSIS and NTI web sites. To read it in full, go to Statement.

Click to read analytical papers prepared for the Working Group by Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation, and C. Raja Mohan, Strategic Affairs Editor, Indian Express. Both reports were published on the CSIS and NTI web sites December 8, 2010.

India: Driving the Global Superhighway

An article written by Teresita C. Schaffer on India’s global positioning, with considerations of the country’s role in the United Nations, the G-20, international nonproliferation, and climate change.

In early 1991, as the global structure of the cold war lay in tatters and India was starting to consider the role it would play in the new system that had emerged, the soon-to-depart Indian ambassador to the United States mused about his parting advice. “I keep telling my government,” he told the author, “if you want to drive on the superhighway, you have to get up to 100 kilometers per hour.” The decade that followed was a time of transformation for India, domestically and internationally. A more economically-driven foreign policy was the natural consequence of its accelerating growth. These trends, along with the collapse of the Soviet Union, thrust India’s relationship with the United States into a much more central position for both countries. But the ambassador’s metaphor was particularly apt in describing the coming transformation of India’s role in the world’s multilateral deliberations. Nearly two decades later, India has found the transition to highway speed surprisingly unsettling, but it is starting to find its stride.

Originally published in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of the Brown Journal of World Affairs.

The Strategic Implications of India’s Internal Security: Looking Back at Mumbai

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer and Sabala Baskar on security measures taken by the Indian government following the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, particularly as they pertain to Pakistan.

The November 2008 attacks in Mumbai are a reminder of the potential consequences of incidents that neither the Pakistani nor the Indian government can completely control. Specifically, the Mumbai episode demonstrated how quickly a seemingly stable India-Pakistan environment can deteriorate. Besides the familiar arguments for political leadership and persistent diplomacy between India and Pakistan, one factor in reducing this vulnerability is strengthening both governments’ means of detecting, preventing, and responding to such incidents.

Originally published in the Center for Strategic & International Studies‘ South Asia Monitor on April 7, 2009. Read the entire article.

India and Iran: Limited Partnership, High Stakes

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer and Suzanne Fawzi on the relationship between India and Iran in regard to energy trade, land access, and—of the most concern to the United States—defense.

In recent months, India’s ties with Iran have come under pressure as the civil-nuclear deal falters in New Delhi. Although maintaining positive relations with Washington is a critical foreign policy objective, India’s relations with Iran are important for reasons such as energy supply, geopolitics, and a symbol of India’s ability to retain an independent foreign policy or “strategic autonomy.” Although India and Iran share energy interests and some regional goals, there continues to be a wide gap between words and deeds.

Originally published in the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ South Asia Monitor on December 20, 2007. Read the entire article.