India and the World

Author(s):  
David M. Malone ◽  
C. Raja Mohan ◽  
Srinath Raghavan

India has emerged as a leading voice in global affairs in the past two decades. Its fast-growing domestic market largely explains the ardour with which Delhi is courted by powers great and small. India is also becoming increasingly important to global geostrategic calculations, being the only Asian country with the heft to counterbalance China over time. Nevertheless, India’s foreign policy has been relatively neglected in the existing literature. ThisHandbook, edited by three widely recognized students of the topic, provides an extensive survey of India’s external relations. The authors include leading Indian scholars and commentators of the field and several outstanding foreign scholars and practitioners. They address factors in Indian foreign policy flowing from both history and geography and also discuss key relationships, issues, and multilateral forums through which the country’s international relations are refracted.

India has emerged as a leading voice in global affairs in the past two decades. Its fast-growing domestic market largely explains the ardour with which Delhi is courted by powers great and small. India is also becoming increasingly important to global geostrategic calculations, being the only Asian country with the heft to counterbalance China over time. Nevertheless, India’s foreign policy has been relatively neglected in the existing literature. ThisHandbook, edited by three widely recognized students of the topic, provides an extensive survey of India’s external relations. The authors include leading Indian scholars and commentators of the field and several outstanding foreign scholars and practitioners. They address factors in Indian foreign policy flowing from both history and geography and also discuss key relationships, issues, and multilateral forums through which the country’s international relations are refracted.


Author(s):  
Ian Hall

Narendra Modi’s energetic personal diplomacy and promise to make India a ‘leading power’, made soon after his landslide election victory in May 2014, surprised many analysts. Most had predicted that his government would concentrate on domestic issues, on the growth and development demanded by Indian voters, and that he lacked necessary experience in international relations. Instead, Modi’s time in office saw a concerted attempt to reinvent Indian foreign policy by replacing inherited understandings of its place in the world with one drawn largely from Hindu nationalist ideology. This book explores the drivers of this reinvention, arguing it arose from a combination of elite conviction and electoral calculation, and the impact it had on India’s international relations under Modi. It examines how Hindu nationalists understand the world and India’s place and role within it, as well as what we know about Modi’s thought and political style. It addresses, in turn, his government’s attempt to present India as a ‘world guru’ with teachings draw from its rich civilizational inheritance, its attempt to further regional prosperity and connectivity in South Asia, and its efforts to address national security vulnerabilities and manage relations with the major powers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 285-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Buarque

This paper analyses international perceptions about Brazil and shows that there is a gap between the images of the nation to the rest of the world and the country’s historic aspirations to be a relevant player in global affairs. By discussing these perceptions, this article brings the study of nation branding closer to the debate of international relations constructivist theories, arguing that images do matter. It analyses secondary data about Brazil from ten different brand surveys, then discusses what it means to be a “serious country” and how that is related to foreign perceptions about the nation. The idea of Brazil as one the "coolest" nations in the world could be considered positive in terms of nation branding, but it may be in contrast with the historic foreign policy agenda of an ambitious nation that tries to project itself as an emerging power in international politics. Being “cool” is often associated with being a nation of parties and fun, which reinforces the frequent description that Brazil “is not a serious country”.


Author(s):  
Siddharth Mallavarapu

The objective of this chapter is to attempt a best case argument for Indian theorizing on Indian foreign policy. This chapter explores early writings on Indian foreign policy and their theoretical underpinnings. While not consciously invoking the conventional registers of mainstream IR theorizing, some key figures in the first generation of disciplinary international studies in India sought to approach the world on their own terms. In this chapter the author grapples with what might be gained from engaging these early accounts. While the general lament remains that generically foreign policy has been under-theorized, the author points to research directions that might nudge future scholars in the field to pay greater heed to context and local accents, introduce a stronger comparative dimension, and systematically pursue theoretical openings made possible by a closer reading of the first generation of Indian international relations writings on foreign policy.


Author(s):  
Martin S. Flaherty

In the past several decades, there has been a growing chorus of voices contending that the Supreme Court and federal judiciary should stay out of foreign affairs and leave the field to Congress and the president. Challenging this idea, this book argues instead for a robust judicial role in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The book demonstrates that the Supreme Court and federal judiciary have the power and duty to apply the law without deference to the other branches. Turning first to the founding of the nation, the book shows that the Constitution's original commitment to separation of powers was as strong in foreign as domestic matters, not least because the document shifted enormous authority to the new federal government. This initial conception eroded as the nation rose from fledgling state to superpower, fueling the growth of a dangerously formidable executive that today asserts near-plenary foreign affairs authority. The book explores how modern international relations makes the commitment to balance among the branches of government all the more critical and considers implications for modern controversies that the judiciary will continue to confront. At a time when executive and legislative actions in the name of U.S. foreign policy are only increasing, the book makes the case for a zealous judicial defense of fundamental rights involving global affairs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Gekkaya Funda

The formation of external policy of any country aims at serving the state’s interests. For this matter, many countries seek their way through this by taking into account the potential prospects available to them. The fundamental subtleties and factors that influence a state’s choices of external policy include geographical location, history, security, culture, trade, political ideology, military might, et cetera. Countries often make external contacts based on some regulations and response to unfolding events. Thus, external policy to an extent pertains to the guiding principles outlined to be pursued through state values, decisions and actions taken by the states themselves and their attempt to develop, manage and control the external relations of national societies. In this regard, the Caucasian region has been an important factor in Turkey’s foreign policy. Since these states emerged in the early 1990s, energy has taken a center stage within the region, while Turkey remains a transit route to the world...


Author(s):  
Andrej Krickovic

Over the last four decades, Russia has been at the very center of peaceful change in international relations. Gorbachev’s conciliatory New Thinking (NT) fundamentally transformed international relations, ending the Cold War struggle and dismantling the Soviet empire and world communist movement. Contemporary Russia is at the forefront of the transition away from American unipolarity and toward what is believed will be a more equitable and just multipolar order. Over time, Russia has moved away from the idealism that characterized Gorbachev’s NT and toward a more hard-nosed and confrontational approach toward peaceful change. The chapter traces this evolution with a particular emphasis on the role that Russia’s unmet expectations of reciprocity and elevated status have played in the process. If they are to be successful, future efforts at peaceful change will have to find ways to address these issues of reciprocity and status, especially under circumstances where there are power asymmetries between the side making concessions and the side receiving them. Nevertheless, despite its disappointments, Russia’s approach to change remains (largely) peaceful. Elements of NT, including its emphasis on interdependence, collective/mutual security, and faith in the possibility of positive transformation, continue to be present in modern Russian foreign policy thinking.


PalZ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon T. Haug ◽  
Carolin Haug ◽  
Serita van der Wal ◽  
Patrick Müller ◽  
Joachim T. Haug

AbstractNymphidae, the group of split-footed lacewings, is a rather species-poor group. Split-footed lacewings nowadays are restricted to Australasia, while fossil forms are also known from other areas of the world, indicating that the group was more species-rich and therefore likely diverse in the past. Split-footed lacewings have rather distinct larvae, roughly resembling antlion larvae, but differing from the latter especially with regard to the mandibles. Antlion larvae usually have three prominent teeth on each mandible, while at least extant larvae of split-footed lacewings only have a single prominent tooth per mandible. Fossils interpreted as larvae of split-footed lacewings are well known from amber from Myanmar (ca. 100 myr; Burmese amber) and by a single specimen from Baltic amber (about 40 myr). We here report additional fossil specimens from Myanmar amber, expanding the known record of fossil forms from six depicted specimens to 15. For the extant fauna, we could compile 25 larvae. We compare the diversity of shape of extant and fossil larvae through time using an outline analysis (based on elliptic Fourier transformation) of the head. The results of this analysis indicate that the morphological diversity, or disparity, of split-footed lacewing larvae was higher in the past than it is today. With this type of analysis, we can show a loss of diversity over time, without the necessity to identify the fossil larvae down to a narrow taxonomical range. A similar pattern has already been recognised in silky lacewings, Psychopsidae. This might indicate a general loss of diversity of lacewing larvae.


2021 ◽  
pp. e20200042
Author(s):  
Alan Gordon

Historic monuments are the most public and recognized forms of commemoration. In Canada, as around the world, many monuments have come under fire recently for celebrating a vision of the past that is no longer palatable to large segments of the population. The heroes and events they enshrine have been denounced by many as tributes to racism, yet they are valued by others as aspects of our collective history and a celebration of our national heritage. Both these positions gloss over the complexity of the historical act of raising monuments and interpreting their historical meanings. Monuments in Canada, like all forms of commemoration, are reflections of the historiographical and methodological trends contemporary to the discipline of history at the time of their creation. Changes in methods and interpretations have thus also affected their meaning over time. Thus, monuments are not straightforward representations of history but, instead, layered expressions of historiography in physical form. Ascribing to them singular meanings obscures the complexity of the societies that constructed them and simplifies their connections to public life.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document