India in the Emerging World Order: A status quo power or a revisionist force?

This chapter sets out to trace the changing contours of India’s foreign policy by throwing light on: (i) the historical and sociological compulsions shaping India’s strategic trends and the evolution of India’s model of neoliberalism; (ii) the expression of India’s strategic trends in its changing equations with the powers of the North (especially the US and the former Soviet Union, and now Russia) and the South (especially Brazil, South Africa and China); (iii) the impact of India’s currently evolving synergy with the South (IBSA, BASIC, BRICS) on India’s relationship with the North (G8+5, G20); (iv) the conflictual and cooperative tendencies within India’s strategies at intra-subregional (India-SAARC), inter-subregional (India-ASEAN) and inter-regional (India-Mercosur; India-AU; India-SADC etc.) levels; and (v) the comparative importance of the mutually contradictory forces of nationally-based TNCs and civil society movements in determining India’s foreign policy. After grasping India’s foreign policy stance in the contemporary neoliberal world, the chapter then evaluates the probability of India becoming a beacon for an alternative in a post-neoliberal world order.