How Realist Is India’s National Security Policy?

225 Pages·2023·6.636 MB·English

by  Kanti Bajpai

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HOW REALIST IS INDIA S NATIONAL
SECURITY POLICY?
In managing national security, how realist is India in terms of cultivating and using
power and especially military power? A conventional view of India is that it has
been uncomfortable with realism or ‘power politics’ as a guide to policy. This
volume shows that it has been more realist than is generally recognized and that it
has increasingly become comfortable with power in the service of its interests.
The essays in this volume

Examine the different aspects and types of realism in India’s national security
policy

Include a range of perspectives from academics as well as former military officers
and diplomats

Focus on India’s military and foreign policy in dealing with China, Pakistan,
the United States, Southeast Asia, and West Asia.
This key volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of politics and
international relations, defence and strategic studies, and South Asian studies and to
government officials, journalists and general readers interested in the external
dimensions of India’s national security.
Kanti Bajpai is Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research interests are strategic
culture studies, India’s foreign policy and national security, and South Asia. His
most recent books are India Versus China: Why They Are Not Friends (2021) and the
co-edited volume Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020).

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HOW REALIST IS INDIA S
NATIONAL SECURITY
POLICY?
Edited by Kanti Bajpai
Cover image: Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 Center for Policy Research
The right of Kanti Bajpai to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-50367-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-55402-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09334-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003093343
Typeset in Bembo
by Taylor & Francis Books
Essays in Honour of Bharat Karnad

CONTENTS
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Preface xiii
Introduction: Is India a Realist Power? xv
Kanti Bajpai
Is India Realist 1
1 Deconstructing Indian Realism 3
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
2 Is India Realist? 8
Shivshankar Menon
3 Indian Realisms and Grand Strategic Choices 21
Kanti Bajpai
4 A Journey Without a Destination: The Cultural-Economy of a
Great Power 37
D. Shyam Babu
Military Realism 51
5 India’s Realist Nuclear Posture for the 21st Century 53
Balraj Singh Nagal
viii Contents
6 Tactical Realism of India’s Conventional Military 68
Harish Masand
7 The Real Tension Between Industrialisation and Indigenisation:
How Realistic Is India’s Approach to Self-Reliance in Armaments? 83
Ajai Shukla
Realism in Diplomacy 103
8 Indian Foreign Policy Realism and India’s West Asia Policy 105
Rajendra M. Abhyankar
9 Look East, Act East: How Realist are Indian Policies Towards
the ASEAN States? 125
Gurjit Singh
10 India’s Moderated Realism vs. China’s Hard Realism 143
Srikanth Kondapalli
Beyond Realism 159
11 India and the United States: Clashing Interests and Geopolitics 161
Jon Dorschner
12 Costs to India, Pakistan of Confrontational Policies: Regional
Challenges and Opportunities 178
Shuja Nawaz
TABLES
4.1 Caste-Society vs. Nation-State 42
12.1 The Size of the Shadow Economy in South Asian Countries
(as percentage of official GDP) 182