India’s emergence as one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies will have significant implications for India’s role in the changing international order in general and in Asia in particular. But what is India’s vision for its role in international affairs and how will it seek to engage and change the international order? Will it seek to reshape existing institutional structures or create new ones? When, and on what issues, will it take a leadership role and the emerging challenges to global order and when will it prefer a lower profile and be content to be a follower? How will India balance the economic, political, and security imperatives in its immediate neighborhood with the wider role that it seeks in the international system?
The project is addressing the questions by focusing primarily on the key ideas, belief systems and meta-narratives that have shaped India. It will seek to understand how Indians have understood the nature of international politics, and correspondingly, how their power and influence should be used. The focus will be on the underlying ideas and beliefs that give content to interests and influence priorities and preferences rather than the latter which is the mainstay of most contemporary analysis of Indian foreign policy.
Research Affiliate
Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science
NYU Abu Dhabi
Project Funding
Smith Richardson Foundation