Explaining Sixty Years of India's Foreign Policy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explain India's foreign policy since independence, including its initial orientation and subsequent shifts through an analysis of the systemic, domestic political, and decision-making factors that shaped its foreign policy choices. India's foreign policy can be divided into three broad phases. The first phase that began with the country's independence in 1947 can be characterized as the most idealistic phase of India's foreign policy. However, India's disastrous defeat in the 1962 Sino-Indian border war ended New Delhi's idealism and marked the beginning of the second phase during which India increasingly adopted a "self-help" approach to international relations. The end of the Cold War and India's gradual embrace of the market in 1991 ushered in the third and the current phase of foreign policy making in New Delhi that is closely tied to the principles of Realism. India is currently on the threshold of great power status even as the country faces a number of challenges that include the maintenance of its high economic growth rate, ensuring energy security, and resolving the country's internal security problems within the framework of its democratic and secular institutions. How India manages its relations with its nettlesome neighbor Pakistan and the extraordinary rise of China, and the type of relationship it forges with the United States are the most important strategic questions confronting the Indian leadership today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of India Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)