Tone shift : India’s dominant foreign policy aims under Modi

This article highlights the dominant aims of the current BJP government concerning India’s foreign policy. Using a constructivist-centred and discourse-orientated approach, it distils the three prevailing strategic goals integral to the Narendra Modi led regime, namely; gaining great power recognition; realising a multipolar world order; and enacting the “Act East” policy.The study finds that, although proof of a prevailing “Modi Doctrine” is scarce, the presence of these three aims is notably consistent and prevalent within official discourses and scholarly accounts of the foreign policy preferences of the second NDA. Their repetition and reiteration constitutes evidence of both a significant acceleration and a noteworthy tone shift concerning how Indian foreign policy has been conceptualised and conducted since 2014.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Recasting South Asian security

Introduction to: New South Asian Security: Six Core Relations Underpinning Regional SecurityPublisher PDFPeer reviewe

The double-edged sword : reviewing India-China relations

As Asia’s largest and most rapidly rising powers in contemporary global politics, relations between India and China are becoming evermore intertwined with each other. Clear commonalities typify this symbiosis, including a shared civilisational basis, a mutual desire to rebecome great powers in international relations and common modernisation goals. At the same time, relations are beset by a number of issues, most notably long-standing territorial disputes, frictions over regional hegemony and wider diplomatic tensions (most prominently relating to China–Pakistan and India–United States ties). As such, India–China relations can be considered to resemble a ‘double-edged sword’, whereby elements of their interaction can be regarded as having concurrent benefits and liabilities. This article explores the historical roots and contemporary realisation of such a core dynamic over the last 75 years of relations between New Delhi and Beijing and investigates how their strategic goals are often simultaneously convergent and divergent.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Perceptions, promotion and pre-eminence : India’s presidency of the G20

New Delhi’s taking on the G20 Presidency represents a highly important—if not watershed—moment for Indian diplomacy. For an India that is transitioning from being a developing to a developed economy and whose great power rise centres upon core goals relating to development, modernisation, status, leadership, importance, prestige and pride, assuming the G20 Presidency seems transformational. A central part of the G20’s remit also concerns constructing and maintaining global financial architectures and governance mechanisms, which India can now crucially influence as her own economic clout increases on the global stage. Moreover, New Delhi’s Presidency signifies a pivotal time for the legitimacy of the G20 and one which potentially heralds a more representative era for the grouping, which will only enhance India’s global pre-eminence.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The role of competing narratives in China and the West’s response to Covid-19

The geopolitical battle to shape the Covid-19 narrative has significant implications for national understandings and foreign policy debates about China. Writing from an International Relations perspective, the author argues that analysing and tracing these narratives will help to enhance our understanding of China’s contemporary rise, the longer-term implications that the current pandemic will have upon its foreign policy, and nature of international affairs more broadly.PostprintPeer reviewe

UK-India relations: The courtier and the courted

Chris Ogden explores the relationship between the UK and India and argues that, going forward, both nations must focus on current shared interests rather than harking back to negative legacies of coloniser and colonised. He also highlights that as India becomes increasingly powerful on the world stage, the UK must position itself carefully to ensure future recognition and favour

The power of unintended consequences : strategic naïvety, China and the end of the US empire

The decline of major global empires has frequently rested upon an act of strategic naïvety. Such an action or decision, although innocuous at the time, results many decades later in those empires collapsing. History is punctuated by examples of great powers that have misjudged the intentions of a rising power, leading to a highly adversarial relationship. Such unintended consequences can be seen in United States policy towards China, which has allowed Beijing to emerge as a clear competitor that is threatening to usurp US hegemony. This article considers these dynamics across seven major empires, dating from ancient Carthage circa 814 BC to modern day Pax Americana. By connecting the past to the present, we find that comparable acts of strategic naïvety by other empires are now increasingly evident in current US-China relations, and which have often occurred for similar reasons.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Indian national security

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Gear shift: Hindu nationalism and the evolution of Indian security

While many scholars have analysed the impact of culture, beliefs and norms on foreign policy, few have connected domestic political identities to international politics. This thesis makes this agenda explicit by showing how domestic policy sources directly impact upon a state’s external security policies. Rather than focusing on material factors (such as military expenditure or economic growth), I instead combine work concerned with constructed identities in international relations with accounts from social psychology of how identities develop and evolve over time. Relying upon empirical evidence from party documents and extensive interviews with over 60 members of India’s security community, this PhD thesis investigates how the identities, norms and ideologies of different political parties have influenced India’s foreign policy behaviour. Employing an analytical framework consisting of multiple composite norms, I find that; 1) there has been a consistent approach to how Indian foreign policy has developed since 1947; 2) the 1998 to 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance inculcated several substantive changes to India’s security policy, especially relating to nuclear transparency, a tilt towards the US, greater regional pragmatism and the use of realpolitik; 3) these normative changes continued into the post-NDA period, and produced an irrevocable gear shift in India’s accepted and evolving security practice. By confirming and explaining the impact of domestic political identities on India’s foreign policy behaviour, this research makes a significant original contribution to the study of Indian security

A randomised control trial and cost-consequence analysis to examine the effects of a print-based intervention supported by internet tools on the physical activity of UK cancer survivors

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a print-based intervention supported by Internet tools at improving physical activity in cancer survivors compared with a standard letter recommendation. Prediagnosis physical activity and self-efficacy were hypothesised to predict physical activity improvement. Study design: Waiting list randomised control trial and cost-consequence analysis. Methods: Adult cancer survivors who could become physically active without prior medical approval were randomised to receive either a print-based intervention supported by Internet tools (intervention, n - 104) or a standard letter recommendation (control, n - 103). Physical activity was assessed at 12 weeks with maintenance assessed at 24 weeks in the intervention arm. The number needed to treat was calculated, and a cost-consequence analysis completed. Results: Participants in receipt of a print-based intervention supported by Internet tools improved their physical activity by 36.9% over 12 weeks compared with 9.1% in the control arm. Physical activity was maintained at 24 weeks in the intervention arm. A total of 6.29 cancer survivors needed to receive the intervention for one cancer survivor to improve their physical activity over a standard letter recommendation. Intervention delivery cost £8.19 per person. Prediagnosis physical activity and self-efficacy did not predict physical activity improvement. Conclusion: A print-based intervention supported by Internet tools offers a promising low-cost means to intervene to improve physical activity in cancer survivors