Shifting Contours of India’s Asian Relations

Jitendra Uttam and Chanwahn Kim

International Studies, 2017, vol. 54, issue 1-4, 2-21

Abstract: This article analyses Asia’s changing structural dynamics impacting India’s relations with the region, post-Independence. Earlier, liberalism, realism and nationalism actively shaped India’s foreign policy choices; however in recent times, a contradictory processes marked by the emergent domestic constraints originating from the failure in India’s economic development meets with the unfolding international opportunities due to China’s phenomenal rise and its growing contestation. This volatile mix of constraints and opportunities forms a paradox that lies at the core of India’s changing foreign policy behaviour towards Asia. Theoretically, India has been quick to decipher ‘advantages of being backward’ (Gerschenkron) and use them in a manner that promotes its national interests. India is trying to counter Beijing promoted ‘economic interdependence’ by US-led ‘political interdependence’. The article argues that China’s economic ascendancy compare to India’s economic backwardness has unleashed genuine fear that East Asia is heading to be under China. Consequently, USA, Japan, India and Australia seem to be inching towards a ‘quadrilateral consensus’ aimed at resisting Chinese hegemony over Asia. This incremental desire to contest Beijing has thrown open an international opportunity for India, which is much bigger than the constraints, imposed by its persistent economic backwardness.

Keywords: Idealism; realism; nationalism; Sino-Indian; Sino-US and Asian relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020881718778166 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:intstu:v:54:y:2017:i:1-4:p:2-21

DOI: 10.1177/0020881718778166

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().