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Indian Foreign Policy and Extra-Regional Powers

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Abstract

India has long viewed itself as the natural hegemon of South Asia, explaining why it has traditionally shown considerable hostility towards what it perceives as extra-regional powers ‘meddling’ in ‘its’ region. Extra-regional powers have typically upset India most by supporting Pakistan, India’s implacable foe. Arguably, USA aid to Pakistan was first provided primarily to ensure Pakistan remained a committed Cold War ally, and later to ensure it remained an effective partner in the War on Terror; but it also had the (largely unintended) effect of facilitating Pakistani antagonism towards India. China’s support for Pakistan, however, has always been unambiguously directed towards distracting, even weakening India. In the contemporary era, China’s rise has facilitated an ever-closer Indo-American relationship, as both sides seek to soft balance against Beijing. And while China continues to prop up Pakistan, it is also seeking to increase its influence in other South Asian states, most notably in Sri Lanka. But India is also rising, with an ever-expanding economy and concomitant rises in defence spending, meaning it remains just as determined as ever to establish itself as the regional hegemon. Accordingly, it is likely that Indian hostility towards what it regards as ‘nefarious’ Chinese ‘interference’ in South Asia will likely increase in future.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bloomfield (2018a).

  2. 2.

    Cohen (2015), pp. 353–354.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., p 348; Bajpai (2015), p. 27.

  4. 4.

    Garver (1996), p. 323–347.

  5. 5.

    Matoo (2012), pvi–vii, Aiyar (2012), ibid., pp. 2–3.

  6. 6.

    Cohen (2001), pp. 38–39.

  7. 7.

    Kennedy (2015), pp. 92–101.

  8. 8.

    Cohen (2001), p. 51.

  9. 9.

    Bhasin (2008), p. 9.

  10. 10.

    Cohen (2001), pp. 48–51; Rajogopalan and Sahini (2008), pp. 16–18.

  11. 11.

    Sagar (2014), pp. 234–257, Karnad (2014), p. 207.

  12. 12.

    Swamy (2013), chapter 3.

  13. 13.

    Bajpai (2014), pp. 133–135.

  14. 14.

    Golwalkar (1966), pp. 271–272.

  15. 15.

    Swamy, (2013), Chap. 2; Cohen (2001), p. 46.

  16. 16.

    Karnad, (2014), p. 208.

  17. 17.

    Naoroji (1962[1867]), Chandra (1966).

  18. 18.

    Chatterjee-Miller (2013), p. 9.

  19. 19.

    Buzan and Waever (2003), p. 120.

  20. 20.

    Quoted in Kapur (2010), pp. 255–256.

  21. 21.

    Cohen (2001), p. 272.

  22. 22.

    Tellis (2015), p. 483.

  23. 23.

    Cohen (2001), pp. 270–271.

  24. 24.

    Kapur (2010), p. 257.

  25. 25.

    Garver (2010), pp. 86–92.

  26. 26.

    Ganguly and Pardesi (2009), p. 8.

  27. 27.

    Cohen (2001), p. 277.

  28. 28.

    Virk (2013), p. 60.

  29. 29.

    Cohen (2001), p. 58.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., pp. 135–136.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., p. 202.

  32. 32.

    Pant (2012), p. 84.

  33. 33.

    Cohen (2001), p. 85–87.

  34. 34.

    Bajpai (1983), pp. 118–119.

  35. 35.

    Quoted in Malone (2011), p. 50.

  36. 36.

    Raghavan (2013).

  37. 37.

    Buzan and Waever (2003), p. 125.

  38. 38.

    Brewster (2015).

  39. 39.

    Bloomfield (2018b).

  40. 40.

    Koithara (1975), pp. 227–237.

  41. 41.

    Cohen (2001), pp. 137–138.

  42. 42.

    Hagerty (1991), pp. 351–352.

  43. 43.

    Bhasin (2008), p. 13.

  44. 44.

    Malone (2011), p. 50.

  45. 45.

    Dutt (1990), p. 78.

  46. 46.

    Cohen (2001), pp. 249–250.

  47. 47.

    Bloomfield (2016), pp. 77–78.

  48. 48.

    Frankel (2005), pp. 580–591, Ganguly and Mukherji (2011), pp. 84–91. See also ibid., fn. 65, p. 82, for numerous additional sources.

  49. 49.

    Tendulkar and Bhavani (2007).

  50. 50.

    Murthy (1999), pp. 639–640.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., p. 641.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., pp. 646–647.

  53. 53.

    Bhasin (2008), p. 14.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., p. 13–15.

  55. 55.

    Bloomfield (2016), p. 89.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., p. 166.

  57. 57.

    Singh (2016), pp. 112–127.

  58. 58.

    Anderson and Verma (2015), pp. 97–98.

  59. 59.

    Tandon (2016), p. 350.

  60. 60.

    Bagchil (2015).

  61. 61.

    Pokharel (2015).

  62. 62.

    Ministry of External Affairs (2015).

  63. 63.

    Haidar and Joseph (2017).

  64. 64.

    Hall (2015).

  65. 65.

    Tandon (2016), pp. 351–352.

  66. 66.

    Malik (2012), pp. 345–376.

  67. 67.

    Ministry of Defence (Navy) (2013), pp. 31–32.

  68. 68.

    Ministry of External Affairs (2017).

  69. 69.

    Basu (2017).

  70. 70.

    Reuters (2017).

  71. 71.

    Parashar (2017).

  72. 72.

    Pant and Yogesh (2014), Green and Shearer (2012), Malik (2012), pp. 354–355.

  73. 73.

    Gupta (2011), p. 1.

  74. 74.

    Kilnani et al. (2012).

  75. 75.

    Rosen and Jackson (2017).

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  1. University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Alan Bloomfield

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  1. Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Amit Ranjan

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Bloomfield, A. (2019). Indian Foreign Policy and Extra-Regional Powers. In: Ranjan, A. (eds) India in South Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2020-0_16

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