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Acting East: India in the Indo-Pacific
On January 26, 2018, the 68th anniversary of India becoming a republic, New Delhi hosted the leaders of all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – from the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte to Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi to Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-ocha. For India, Republic ...The indigenisation of India’s defence industry
An indigenous defence industry is a vital objective for India given its security environment and strategic objectives. India has a large and growing defence budget and a long history of defence industrial production. However, the country remains heavily reliant on defence imports, particularly for major platforms, while its own exports are extremely ...From the iPhone to Huawei: The new geopolitics of technology
In meetings in various international capitals this summer from a gathering of defense ministers in Singapore to a meeting of economic policy heavyweights and CEOs in Paris discussions frequently revolved around the impact of technology. Of course, technological developments have long had implications for the global economy and international security, whether the ...India 2024: A global India
The next Indian government faces a world that looks very different from the way it did five – and certainly 10 or 20 – years ago. The global economy is facing headwinds: stagnant trade, disruptive technologies, and growing protectionism concerning agricultural and manufactured goods, key services, technology transfers, and labour mobility. U.S. ...The four “I”s undermining democracy
It will be an important year for democracy around the world. In April and May, India heads to the polls in what will be the largest organized political activity in history. Israel, Indonesia, and Ukraine just held very contentious elections while Spain, Australia, Canada, Tunisia, Argentina, Sri Lanka, and the European Parliament ...Survey of India’s Strategic Community
Like every major country, India has a strategic community: a relatively small group of professionals who, in different ways, direct or influence India’s foreign and security policy. This strategic community includes career diplomats, bureaucrats, military commanders, and intelligence officers, as well as political leaders from the ruling party/coalition and the opposition. ...Deepening democracy through diversity: Improving cooperation with India...
Executive Summary The policy literature on democracy often overlooks a number of factors that have important implications for democracy’s future. First, it frequently exaggerates the decline of democracy globally, often by conflating reverses in liberalism with reversals in democracy. Second, it continues to imply ownership of democracy by the Western world when ...Maritime connectivity and security in the Indo-Pacific
Thank you for the kind invitation to address this august gathering in Bhubaneshwar today, and my Congratulations to Ambassador Lalit Mansingh and his colleagues at the Kalinga International Foundation on this wonderful new initiative. There are perhaps few better places than Odisha to discuss India’s growing role in world affairs. After all ...Here’s why Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia are trying to...
Asia is in a state of flux. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is reshaping the region’s geography, with roads and railways traversing Eurasia and new ports dotting the Indian Ocean basin. Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea continues, despite negotiations towards a code of conduct. Japan has found itself in an ...India’s strategic landscape: An assessment
In trying to assess the strategic environment in which India finds itself in 2018, it may be useful to make eight broad observations. One, the Indian economy is growing. In 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund, India surpassed France to have the world’s sixth largest gross domestic product (GDP). In the ...India rising: Soft power and the world’s largest democracy
Arguably, few phrases are as misused in international relations as “soft power.” When he coined the term, Joseph Nye captured the important and (at the time) poorly studied phenomenon in international affairs of “getting others to want the outcomes that you want,” predicated on the attractiveness of one’s culture, political values and ...Here’s why central and eastern Europe may become an area of promise...
In a rare high-level engagement by India in an increasingly pivotal region, President Ram Nath Kovind is on a visit to Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Long seen as an area of competing Russian and western interests, central and eastern Europe (CEE) has not always featured prominently in India’s foreign policy agenda. ...India rising: Soft power and the world’s largest democracy
Arguably, few phrases are as misused in international relations as “soft power.” When he coined the term, Joseph Nye captured the important and (at the time) poorly-studied phenomenon in international affairs of “getting others to want the outcomes that you want,” predicated on the attractiveness of one’s culture, political values, and foreign ...The World Cup exposes the limits of globalization
International soccer, often known around the world as football, is undoubtedly a beneficiary and a symbol of globalization. Over 70 percent of players at this year’s FIFA World Cup play professionally for clubs outside their native countries. Chinese sponsors have shelled out $835 million on the event, contributing more than a third ...Aid wars: U.S.-Soviet competition in India
The issue of development aid has significant contemporary relevance. Today, many longstanding donor countries like the United States debate the efficacy of aid, while new donors such as China and India explore the possibility of using economic assistance for political purposes. As David Engerman, Professor of History at Brandeis University, shows in ...What’s changed in the Trump administration’s approach to Asia?
Let us give credit where credit is due. For all the talk of dysfunction and policy incoherence in Washington under President Donald J. Trump, his administration has started to get some things right, especially when it comes to Asia policy. It helps that some of the key positions in the U.S. government, ...Tillerson’s visit opens a window of opportunity that India must...
In 2000, in the midst of a US election, George W Bush’s top foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice wrote an essay in Foreign Affairs that outlined the candidate’s worldview. Among other things, it recognised the importance of India, and the need to facilitate its rise as a balancer in Asia. The US ...The rise and rise of Xi Jinping: At 19th Party Congress, he consolidates...
The National Congress of the Communist Party, held every five years, is the closest thing authoritarian China has to an election. The most recent Congress – the 19th – was held October 18-24, and was an occasion for the over 2,000 delegates to deliberate and agree on policy matters guiding the nation. ...China miscalculated how to handle India, allowed face-saving exit
To the considerable relief of all parties involved, India and China agreed yesterday to end a 74-day stand-off by their security forces near the trijunction with Bhutan. India initiated the announcement with a short statement that simply said that an “expeditious disengagement of border personnel…has been agreed to and is ongoing.” China ...Why are China and India in a border standoff?
The standoff between Chinese and Indian forces near the trijunction with Bhutan is a live, and sensitive, issue for all three countries. It has also given rise to considerable misinformation. The facts of the matter are that on June 16, Chinese forces attempted to extend a road southwards in territory that China ...Even as India attempts to ‘Act East’, it is ‘Thinking...
Not that long ago, the words ‘Not valid for travel to South Africa or Israel’ used to be clearly written on all Indian passports. Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Israel, the first by an Indian prime minister to that country, brings a long diplomatic arc to its natural conclusion. Since normalising relations ...On China, Modi Won Unexpected Support From Trump
There is a lot to analyse, and possibly over-analyse, about the recent meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump. There were some notable surprises, including the strong language used when condemning Pakistan for its refusal to crack down on terrorist groups operating across borders. There were also some ...Facebook Chat on India-US relations
Q: Dhruva, according to you which sectors will be the focus of the India-U.S. dialogue? Dhruva: Thanks for your question. The India-U.S. agenda is very broad, and will remain so. In the official meetings this weekend a lot will come up, including trade, immigration, security, etc. I suspect the meeting between Modi ...Book Review: Man on the Run
BRITISH INVESTIGATIVE journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy have established themselves as specialists in fast-paced, densely-researched, narrative non-fiction books about the shadowy security of South Asia. Nuclear Deception was an account of the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation network. The Meadow told the tale of Western backpackers taken hostage in Kashmir in 1995. ...Moving forward on defence and security
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets US President Donald Trump for the first time, the focus will be on establishing a good rapport between the two leaders. There remain concerns that their two governments’ objectives are not compatible: that Trump’s “America First” approach, which conceives of US interests in narrow, transactional terms, ...India and the United States in the Trump era: Re-evaluating bilateral and...
Donald Trump’s election at a time of growing and converging interests between India and the United States necessitates a re-evaluation of several aspects of Indian domestic and foreign policy. This paper identifies four areas in which Trump’s election affects Indian interests: bilateral relations (encompassing trade, investment, immigration, and technological cooperation), the Asian balance of power, counterterrorism, and global governance. ...Actualising East: India in a Multipolar Asia
After years of a ‘Look East’ policy that recognised the importance of the Asia-Pacific region for Indian interests, the Indian government decided to upgrade it rhetorically to ‘Act East’. The objective of the ‘Act East’ policy is to ensure a multipolar Asia, through deeper institutional engagement, land and maritime connectivity, and security ...India doesn’t have a lot to lose by boycotting OBOR. Read why
What does India want from the world? It’s quite clear, really: international partnerships to accelerate its domestic development, a stable and conducive periphery, a multi-polar Asia, an end to cross-border terrorism and a sufficient role in global governance to enable it to meet these goals. Today, each of these objectives relates in ...New Delhi’s efforts at ICJ may just have won Kulbhushan Jadhav a...
On May 18, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the principal judicial arm of the United Nations – ruled on the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, whom Pakistan alleges is an Indian spy. The court unanimously declared that Pakistan must take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Jadhav is not ...Coming up Trumps
As Donald Trump completes 100 days as US President, what has it meant for India? The short answer is, nobody knows, not even Trump. But in an era of greater uncertainty, it is important for India to identify the key variables triggered by Trump’s election. They relate, essentially, to four broad areas: ...View from India: Pak may want to think twice about US mediation
Donald Trump, deal-maker. That’s how the president of the United States has long branded himself. But his tenure as deal-maker-in-chief has not gotten off to a great start. Whether it is the defiance of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in conducting missile tests or Syria’s Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons, Trump has ...Can Trump really value a strong, independent India?
The US capital is a strange place these days. The District of Columbia’s coffee shops are running a brisk business, attending to a steady stream of ex-Obama administration officials and patient federal government employees awaiting policy direction from on high. Many members of the Republican policy firmament appear alienated, some bitterly so. ...Dhruva Jaishankar on how the H-1B visa controversy will affect India
https://twitter.com/ABCNews24/status/826396780057079808 Brookings India Fellow for Foreign Policy Dhruva Jaishankar spoke to ABC News on the future of Indian workers on highly skilled visas (H-1B) in the US under President Donald Trump. Mr Jaishankar said: “There has been a lot of criticism of this programme within the US, irrespective of Donald Trump, including ...What Trump’s TPP withdrawal means for India
In one of his first acts upon assuming office, Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum confirming the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This move did not come as a surprise. As a presidential candidate, Trump had vociferously campaigned against what he described as bad or unfair trade agreements that the ...Passing the baton: what to watch in the Donald Trump regime
With Donald Trump taking over as US President from Barack Obama, what legacy does he inherit? How could the change in administration in Washington affect India, directly or indirectly? Bilateral Issues Immigration: Trump campaigned on anti-immigration sentiment, but sometimes tried to make an exception for high-skilled immigration, which includes the H-1B visa ...Barack Obama leaves a mixed legacy: impressive handling of the US economy...
Eight years ago, on a freezing January morning, I stood with over a million people on the National Mall in Washington DC to watch a 47-year-old African-American senator become the 44th US president. There was a pervasive sense at the time, particularly among young, highly educated and urban Americans, that Barack Obama ...India’s military diplomacy: taking the leap
It is undeniable that the nature of military force in international affairs has changed in the seven decades since India’s Independence. It has been almost 45 years since India fought a major conventional war, and events since – including the experience of India’s counter-insurgency in Sri Lanka, its development of nuclear weapons, ...Australia-India relations: poised for take off
Relations between India and the United States before the redefining changes of the past two decades were possibly best summarised in the title of a book by the American diplomat Dennis Kux: Estranged Democracies. But that phrase could just as easily have applied, more recently, to India and Australia. Despite their having ...It’s time to resuscitate the Asia-Pacific Quad
2016 was quite a year. The Middle East continued its violent downward spiral; a failed coup in Turkey erased the last vestiges of democracy in that country; the new president of the Philippines launched a bloody, nation-wide vigilante war on drugs; North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test, and its biggest to ...If State Elections were General
On December 11, the results of five Indian state elections – in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram – were announced. These will be the last state elections before the 2019 Indian general election, about which speculation will now begin in earnest. Predicting national elections is a notoriously difficult exercise; the ...How to tame a dragon: To deal with Chinese muscle in a post-American...
The election of Donald Trump as US president has unleashed further uncertainty on a world already in considerable flux. Trump has promised economic protectionism, reversals on immigration and militarism against terrorists, but has outlined few concrete policies. Much will depend on his cabinet appointments and his ability to work with US Congress ...‘India should be less worried about trade with US than others’
Dhruva Jaishankar, Fellow, Foreign Policy, Brookings India, tells Aditi Phadnis of the Business Standard that India should take advantage of Donald Trump’s election as US President and shape an outcome to its advantage. Edited excerpts: After a long hiatus, a Republican has become the President of the United States. And it is ...India, meet President Trump
For India, there are naturally opportunities in Trump’s election, but concerns over his Asian policy cannot be brushed aside With the election of Donald Trump, we have seen the biggest shock to US politics in 70 years. Trump was given only a slim chance of victory. He had no previous experience as a public servant and few detailed ...Uncertainty and unpredictability about Trump’s presidency
Dhruva Jaishankar spoke to Quint and BloombergQuint on what having Donald Trump as the next U.S. President means for India. The election of Donald J Trump as the 45th President of the United States was a surprise to many people in America and around the world. While there will be a lot of ...With Trump’s victory, American exceptionalism came to an end
Fifteen years ago, I came to the United States as an undergraduate student. A few weeks after my arrival, I watched the World Trade Center’s twin towers collapse live on television from my dormitory in Minnesota. Two years after that, stuck in a snowstorm in Colorado, I watched America plunge headfirst into ...“Modi government has been hardening stance against Pakistan for a...
Brookings India Foreign Policy Fellow Dhruva Jaishankar was part of a panel discussion on NDTV on the next steps for India post the Uri attacks where 18 Indian Army soldiers were killed. Anchor: Politics does guide the decisions of all governments everywhere in the world. You can’t divorce politics from governance. How much ...Pew survey results heartening for government but should not lead to...
What does India think? This is a question that those of us who work on policy issues outside of government are often expected to answer. A country as big and diverse as India is naturally home to a wide variety of views. Often, we tend to reflect the positions of our peers, ...India’s bid for “regionalism” in South Asia and what it...
The killing of 18 Indian soldiers on Sunday, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants, is just the latest incident to drive a wedge between the two countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent his first two years in office engaging his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. In an unprecedented move, Sharif was ...Indian Ocean region: A pivot for India’s growth
“[Matsya said] ‘I have saved you from this cataclysm’ [and Manu] set about his work of creating all beings in proper and exact order.” –The Mahabharata, iii.186 The Indian Ocean matters today, arguably more than ever. It is a major conduit for international trade, especially energy. Its littoral is vast, densely populated, ...Why Hillary is a safe bet for India
The field is set. With the formal anointing of party nominees at the Republican and Democratic Party conventions in July, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is certain to be the next U.S. president. This match-up is remarkable for several reasons. Trump would be the first U.S. leader in over a half ...“Trump’s anti-trade rhetoric does not create an opening for...
In an interview to The Quint on July 22, Foreign Policy Fellow Dhruva Jaishankar offered a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Presidential election campaign, and the ramifications of the election for India and the rest of the world. The current state of affairs in the Republican and Democratic Parties He started with ...The South China Sea arbitration ruling, and why it matters to India
The future of the South China Sea has global implications, as jurisdiction over a few seemingly minor islands legitimises control over vast amounts of sea On Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague released its much-awaited ruling on a case brought by the Philippines against China on the South China Sea disputes. ...Here’s how the future of the South China Sea will have global...
On Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague released its much-awaited ruling on a case brought by the Philippines against China on the South China Sea disputes. The decision marks the most high-profile development concerning the overlapping and intensifying territorial disputes, which directly involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, ...Brexit: The first major casualty of digital democracy
In the aftermath of the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, we are left with more questions than answers. Dhruva Jaishankar writes that with all the questions about what happens next, there's a bigger question worth asking: What are the implications of Brexit for democracy? Arguably, Brexit represents the first ...
Critical Seoul NSG meet will have reverberations for India’s...
NSG meeting is no less important, for the potential implications it could have for relations between India and China writes Dhruva Jaishankar A decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on June 23-24 – as to whether to include India as a member – may be overshadowed in international media by other ...India-U.S. | Looking back: Highs, lows, and steady progress
India and the United States have come a long way since 2008, the year that Barack Obama was elected U.S. President. Earlier that same year, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took the unusual step of putting the future of his government on the line over a matter of foreign policy – specifically, ...Can India’s Think Tanks Be Truly Effective?
If there is one big challenge that all think tanks face it is measuring their effectiveness writes Dhruva Jaishankar I have worked for much of the past decade in, or with, think tanks in both the US and in India, and am regularly confronted with misperceptions and misapprehensions about the sector. What ...