Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
willingness to adopt a less rigid policy on the question of India's acquisition of
nuclear weapons, among other matters, removed a key irritant in the relationship.
Despite the warming trend, Hathaway appropriately cautions that the
relationship is far from robust and important differences persist in such areas as
global trade negotiations, the pace of economic reform within India and the
question of India's hoped-for membership on the United Nations Security
Council.
India's relationship with the principal successor state to the other former
superpower, the Soviet Union, has also undergone profound changes.
Nevertheless, as Deepa Ollapally argues, the bonds, though significantly
attenuated, have not been entirely sundered. India can no longer rely on Russia to
militarily pin down a recalcitrant China, nor can it count on Russian support on
the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council. Yet because India possesses a
very substantial Soviet-made military arsenal, India maintains a substantial arms
purchase relationship with Russia. India has, however, rebuffed Russian
overtures for the formation of an Indo-Russian-Chinese diplomatic bloc as a
bulwark against overweening American power. Given India's recent efforts to
court the United States, its reluctance to participate in such a dubious enterprise
is hardly surprising.
In the absence of a post-Soviet security guarantee against future Chinese
malfeasance, India's decision-makers still remain wary of Chinese intentions and
capabilities. More to the point, as John Garver's contribution to this special issue
reveals, a considerable gap exists between China's public rhetoric and its
internal assessments of India's capabilities and intentions. Given the history of
past mistrust, divergent regional security goals and interests, and the persistence
of a border dispute between the two powers any improvements in Sino-Indian
relations will be incremental.
India's relations with its other contentious neighbor, Pakistan, are the subject
of Stephen Cohen's analysis. Cohen argues that the Indo-Pakistani relationship
constitutes a 'paired minority' conflict, one in which both sides tend to see
themselves a members of a besieged minority, the actual circumstances
notwithstanding. Accordingly, they devise a range of strategies, from attempts at
accommodation to assimilation to cope with the unique security problems that
stem from this self-definition. After discussing a variety of possible scenarios of
conflict resolution, Cohen argues that little progress is likely without the
involvement of a powerful external actor, namely the United States.
Although the Cold War's end has done little to ameliorate India's relations
with two of its fractious neighbors, it has opened opportunities for better ties
with other states, such as France and Israel. During the Cold War, Indo-French
relations, though hardly hostile, lacked diplomatic or cultural ballast. With the
Cold War's end and the seeming emergence of American unipolarity, as Jean-
Luc Racine shows, India and France have drawn together.
