Ashok K. Behuria

India’s Neighbourhood First Policy (NFP) is a touchstone of its foreign policy, aimed at promoting peace, stability, connectivity, and cooperation in South Asia to enhance India’s regional and global influence. It is a defining subset of its overall foreign policy. While the groundwork for this policy was laid during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, through enhanced regional engagement, it was given emphatic currency by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the shape of the NFP, and formally launched in 2014. The NFP reflects India’s strategic imperative to cultivate a cooperative periphery, counterbalance external influences (especially from China), and project India’s influence within Asia and beyond. This Essay traces the origins of India’s approach to the neighbourhood from the pre-independence colonial period, its evolution under Jawaharlal Nehru and subsequent Congress and non-Congress governments, critically analyses the functioning of the NFP under the Modi government, and suggests ways in which India can retain its influence in the neighbourhood.

• Ashok K. Behuria |
• May-June 2025 |
• Strategic Analysis

Voices of the Unvoiced is a deeply moving and painstakingly researched book,Footnote1 which explores the various challenges faced by PakhtunFootnote2 women as they seek education in the culturally complex and war-torn province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. An academic treatise and personal testament, this book is the result of five years of intense research, including a doctoral dissertation and postdoctoral study. It combines feminist theory, socio-historical analysis, and ethnographic storytelling to highlight the tenacity and resilience of (Pakhtun) women in a patriarchal society. It offers a timely reflection on gender, education, and empowerment in a region grappling with the legacies of armed conflict and cultural conservatism.

• Ashok K. Behuria |
• March-April 2025 |
• Strategic Analysis

Senior Fellows Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Ashok K Behuria and Dr Uttam Sinha’s op-ed ‘The Field Marshal In His Labyrinth’ has been published in ‘The Times of India’ on 21 May 2025.

Islamabad is on edge post ceasefire. The #PakistanStandsUnited narrative is slipping. Gen Munir’s promotion is a stabilisation gambit against the army leadership being challenged, write Dr Behuria and Dr Sinha.

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The monograph focusses on the unending sectarian conflict in the Kurram district in Pakistan. It traces the history of Kurram, the origin Tof the Turi Shias and chronicles major incidents of sectarian conflicts in the district. It argues that sectarian violence in Kurram, Pakistan, between Shias and Sunnis is deeply rooted in historical animosities, exacerbated by the state’s Sunni-Islamist orientation and external influences like the Afghan Jihad and Saudi-Iran rivalry.

• Ashok K. Behuria |
• 2025 |
• Monograph

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Ashok K. Behuria’s Issue brief ‘Visit of Sri Lankan President to India: Issues at Stake’ has been published by International Centre for Peace Studies on 24 December 2024.

The issue brief isolates the India and China factors in Lankan politics and diplomacy and suggests ways in which the two countries can carry their engagement forward.

• Ashok K. Behuria, Ashish Shukla |
• March-April 2024 |
• Strategic Analysis

Pakistan’s political culture has become not conducive for democratic politics, at a time when the country is faced with the possibility of economic default and increasing attacks of insurgent groups from within.

• Ashok K. Behuria |
• May 22, 2023 |
• IDSA Comments

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr. Ashok K. Behuria’s chapter ‘Developments in Gilgit-Baltistan: Interpreting Local Angst’ has been published in Ashish Shukla’s edited book ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Under Pakistan’s Occupation’.

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As the civilian political space shrinks and the capacity of the state gets hobbled by political dissension and internal resistance from forces armed with an alternate blueprint for action, Pakistan is likely to rely more on its anti-India stance to build national unity, seeking especially to suck in the militant religious groups into its orbit.

• Ashok K. Behuria |
• December 03, 2021 |
• IDSA Comments