The Long View from Delhi: To Define the Indian Grand Strategy for Foreign Policy

by Raja Menon, Rajiv Kumar

Analyzing some of the major influences on foreign and security policy in India, this synthesis of insights assesses emerging global scenarios from an Indian perspective and details their likely impact on India's current and future national interests. This study first uses the Net Assessment method to detail the scenarios that the country will face in 2020 and then utilizes a transparent method to build three scenarios that India could face and compares them to other situations created by the United States National Intelligence Council and a group of Indian Practitioners. Closing with a possible foreign policy strategy, this reference clearly explains the choices that await a rising India.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs a skilled editor.

Asserts that current Indian grand strategy is limited to a regional approach that is based on the assumption that a rising Indian tide will lift all the South Asian economies.

Distinction between 2010-2020 and 2020-. Prior to 2020, need to focus on inclusive economic growth (and assume a more modest international profile). Post 2020, India will seek increased global status and influence.

Worst scenario for India: a U.S.-China duopoly where China remains hostile to India and the U.S. is unavailable (or uninterested) as a balancing power.

"China's extreme vulnerability in the Indian Ocean is the only guarantor of its peaceful rise." (177)