Politics, economics, regional dynamics of South Asia
During India’s first nine months on the Security Council, it has worked with the United States on broad themes but often differed on country-specific issues. Council membership has a price: many votes inevitably disappoint some of India’s constituencies and international friends.
Read our op-ed in The Hindu, October 8, 2011.
Jobs and reviving the economy will shape the 2012 U.S. election and future U.S.-India relations. During the long election season, attention will focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and how to deal with a rising China. India does not attract the same controversy, but the unresolved economic issues on the U.S.-India agenda will be in the spotlight.
See our op-ed in The Hindu (Chennai), August 23, 2011.
Hillary Clinton and her distinguished team beat expectations for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. They notched up some solid gains on the bilateral agenda, started two regional dialogues with strategic potential, and established some benchmarks for the next year.
For the future of U.S.-India relations, they need to tackle some of the longstanding trade and investment issues, get nuclear trade moving despite the undoubted difficulty of the nuclear liability issue, and above all – keep paying attention. This is an important but high maintenance relationship.
Read text of Teresita Schaffer’s comments on the Brookings web site.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is bringing with her an all-star team for the second round of U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, which will take place later this year. Five heads of agencies are joining her, including the Director of National Intelligence, along with 3 officials who are one rung away from the top of their agencies. They will do useful work, but they need to make their game more ambitious.
Read Teresita Schaffer’s comments, posted by Brookings July 18, 2011.
May 1, 2011: The world’s biggest international military aircraft deal in two decades has been moving slowly through the Indian government’s procurement process. After years of discreet and not-so-discreet lobbying by aircraft manufacturers, heads of state, and everyone in between, the Indian Air Force announced on April 27 that it was short-listing the two European entries and excluding from further consideration the remaining four contestants, including two from the United States: a Boeing-led consortium with the F-18 and Lockheed Martin with the F-16.
The announcement sent shock waves through Washington. This was by far the biggest potential military sale ever contemplated with India. It had been regarded in the United States not just as a commercial bonanza at a time of economic distress, but as the opportunity to introduce a new level of operational and strategic understanding into the growing India-U.S. defense relationship. In the five months between the high of the Obama visit to Delhi and, now, the low of the aircraft decision, what have we learned about how the two countries are managing their partnership and where it is headed?
Continue reading “Of Planes and Men: The U.S.-India Partnership”