India: Statecraft and Foreign Policy

How do states formulate their foreign policies? Are there special features that characterize the foreign policy of post-colonial states? Why has India despite its image as a peace-loving country, home to Buddha and Gandhi, become embroiled in so many wars and regional conflicts? Why has South Asia been subject to endemic conflict and terrorist attacks? Is South Asia, with two hostile neighbors, equipped with the nuclear bomb, the 'world's most dangerous neighborhood'? The volume answers these key questions by examining policy in empirical and theoretical terms. Drawing upon classic approaches within international relations, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, rational choice, institutionalism and the two-level game, the book pursues a position of analytic eclecticism. It does so by implementing a tool-kit that draws upon a combination of elite strategies, institutions and societal variables (including culture and class). The book examines Indian foreign policy from Independence in 1947 to present day.