Publication Filter

The Comrades and the Mullahs: China, Afghanistan and the New Asian Geopolitics: Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johny, HarperCollins, Gurugram

The conspicuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan has resulted in a political vacuum, garnering immediate attention of regional and great powers alike. In The Comrades and the Mullahs, presenting Afghanistan’s long history of foreign invasions and resistance, journalists Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johny show how the country was a theatre for the Great Game between the British and Russian Empires, and later got caught in Cold War rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union. The return of the Taliban in Afghanistan has certainly become a diplomatic predicament for India.

The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion and the Rise of Trump: Patrick Porter, Polity Press, Cambridge and Medford

The coming of Donald Trump to power as the 45th President of the United States amounted to a moment of reckoning for the American foreign policy establishment. With his unconventional posturing and populist moorings, the Trump presidency seemed antithetical to Washington DC’s ‘Blob’ worldview that guided American foreign policy in the post-Cold War years.

Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration: Christopher Snedden, Manchester University Press, Manchester

Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration by noted author and expert Christopher Snedden touches upon a raw nerve in the discourse on Kashmir—the aspiration for independence. Snedden describes how and where exactly the idea germinated, sequentially tracing its evolution. This is Snedden’s third book on Kashmir; the first focussed on the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)’ that together with Gilgit-Baltistan forms Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The second book focused primarily on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in India.

China in India’s Post-Cold War Engagement with Southeast Asia: Chietigj Bajpaee, Routledge, Abingdon, UK

The commemoration of 2022 as the ‘ASEAN-India Year of Friendship’ marks thirty years of the partnership between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Beginning in 1992 with India’s ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP), renamed ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP) in 2014, India has progressed from being a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992 to a Dialogue Partner in 1996 and a Summit-level Partner in 2002.

India–Africa Relations: Changing Horizons: Rajiv Bhatia, Routledge, New York

India’s partnership with Africa has come into the limelight in recent years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Address to the Ugandan parliament in 2018 reiterated that Africa is a high priority for India’s foreign policy. India-Africa Relations: Changing Horizons by Rajiv Bhatia is a welcome addition to the literature on India’s engagement with the African continent. In this volume, Bhatia has put to good use, the insights gained during his 37-year innings in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), particularly his term as India’s High Commissioner to Kenya, South Africa and Lesotho.

Debating the Past: Nehru, China and Lessons from 1962 War

The year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1962 Sino-Indian war. Fought over a period of one month, the war is seen as one of the watersheds in the history of India–China relations. Besides creating a considerable dent in bilateral ties, it also led New Delhi to revamp its defence and military infrastructure. Incidentally, in terms of research on China studies in India, the war proved to be a defining moment of transition.

China’s South Asia Policy

The first half of 1971 witnessed some significant developments in South Asia: the emergence of a liberation movement for an independent Bangla Desh, the Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) insurgency in Ceylon and the landslide electoral victory of Smt. Gandhi in India. These developments came at a time when China, in the aftermath of the decisions taken at the Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, had begun implementing a reactivated tactical line in foreign policy.

‘Strategising’ the India-EU Partnership

India’s foreign policy, as in the case of any other sovereign state, aims at protecting and promoting the country’s ‘national interest.’ Strategic autonomy, which has been its defining value and goal, remains at the core of India’s global engagements. India maintains political, diplomatic, economic, strategic, science and technological, and cultural relations to achieve a stable, secure, peaceful, and prosperous India. The largest ‘democracy’ in the world, India, joins hands with the EU, the largest cluster of ‘democracies’ in the world.

Quad and the Indo-Pacific: Examining the Balance of Interest Theory in Quad Coalition

In light of China’s rise, the Quad coalition has gained momentum in its efforts to maintain a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). While scholars have discussed the relevance of Quad, little work has been done to theorize the balancing behaviour of individual Quad countries. This article examines Randall Schweller’s Balance of Interest theory—which emphasizes the underlying ‘profit motives’ in alliance formations—in the Quad coalition.

Colonialism Matters: Benefits of Metropoles with a Focus on India and Great Britain

The history of colonialism normally focusses on the socio-economic losses of colonies, and the benefits of metropoles are a much less-studied field. Our study indicates that the flow of resources, rent and personal wealth should not be downplayed as factors of economic growth in the key Empires, although information on most subjects is limited. This importance could be demonstrated (although not fully quantitatively evaluated) by India–United Kingdom relations before 1913.