India as a Global Power: The Strategic Culture Problems

Sergey I. Lunev and Ellina P. Shavlay
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Sergey I. Lunev: Sergey I. Lunev is a Professor at the Department of Oriental Studies of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University) and a Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include global and regional security as well as foreign and domestic policies of Asian countries and Russia.
Ellina P. Shavlay: Ellina P. Shavlay is a Lecturer at the English Language Department No.1, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), and a Research Fellow at the Primakov Institute of World Economics and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. Her research interests include India’s foreign policy, Indo-Pacific region, Russia-India-China relations and the US strategy in Asia.

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 2021, vol. 77, issue 4, 525-541

Abstract: The article reviews India’s contested role of a great power in global politics. Although showing tangible results across all the aspects pertaining to the great power status, in international relations India is still largely underestimated and even overlooked. Politicians and scholars generally mention three main reasons behind that phenomenon: weak social and economic figures, the country’s relatively narrow global impact and the absence of strategic culture. We argue that the latter is key, and that it is in the process of being remedied. In fact, India already has all the prerequisites for being recognised as a ‘great power’, since it has political, military, economic and cultural capabilities corresponding to the status. It is simply a matter of time and coordinated efforts of the government to formulate and implement a consistent foreign policy and economic strategy as well as a change in Indian elite’s strategic thinking which will enable untapping India’s existing potential and successfully meeting the objective of increasing its influence in global politics.

Keywords: India; strategic culture; global strategy; great power; foreign policy; national interests; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:77:y:2021:i:4:p:525-541

DOI: 10.1177/09749284211047750

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