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Thursday 7 June 2018

Talking Foreign Policy: How India Sees the World (Asia Society India)


Since 1947, India's foreign policy has witnessed a judicious and progressive course from the Nehruvian period's social agenda to economic liberalisation, and an increased interest in participating on the world stage as a significant political and economic power. This shift has manifested in several significant foreign policy decisions in the last two decades, such as the move away from non-alignment to the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal and participation in the Copenhagen climate change negotiation. A handful of expert policymakers and advisors have been instrumental in driving these changes in foreign policy and diplomacy, with Saran as a key figure among them. In this new book, 'How India Sees the World: Kautilya to the 21st Century', using the prism of Kautilya's Arthashastra and other ancient treatises on statecraft, Saran show the historical sources of India's worldview. He looks at India's neighbourhood and the changing wider world through this lens and arrives at fascinating conclusions like the claims that the world is hurtling towards Chinese unipolarity are overblown; international borders are becoming irrelevant as climate change and cyber terror bypass them; and India shouldn't hold its breath for a resolution to its border disputes with China and Pakistan in the foreseeable future.

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