Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in large part dictated by the need to go beyond the black and white politics of the
past.
In its place, a more nuanced cross-cutting issue-based politics is evolving,
which means that no fixed balance of power is going to emerge on the Eurasian
or Asian landscape. The idea of pragmatic, issue-based foreign policymaking
seeking appropriate international coalition partners rather than fixed allies seems
to be increasingly taking hold in the Indian establishment.
Given that outside the subcontinent India is a weaker power than many of its
Eurasian and Asian neighbors, India may opt to not join any tacit or explicit
grouping such as that proposed by Primakov, but rather learn the fine art of
balancing in the more fluid strategic environment it faces. This would work best
if, under dire circumstances, India could count on an ultimate powerful ally, but
there is no evidence to indicate that Russia would or could play this role.
52
US policymaking after September 11 calls into question its potential role in
this connection as well. In any event, one important strand of thinking among
India's strategic elite seems to be that in order for India to prove its worth as a
potential ally or partner for any state, it needs to develop its military capability
even further, and keep up its economic growth. Russia is likely to prove critical
in doing the former and appears ready to do so; likewise with the US for the
latter.
NOTES
1.
This is a historical reference to Russian Prince Aleksandr Gorchakov's comment
after the humiliating defeat in the Crimean war that 'It is said that Russia sulks.
Russia does not sulk. Russia is collecting itself.' Quoted in Celeste Bohlen, 'Putin
the Power Broker',
New York
Times,
26 Aug. 2001.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Hari Vasudevan, 'Russia as a Neighbor: Indo-Russian Relations 1992-2001',
Lecture at the Conference on 'Russia—Ten Years After', Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, Washington DC, 9 June 2001.
4.
See for example, Michael McFaul, 'West or East for Russia',
Washington Post,
9
June 2001; Dimitri Trenin, 'Russia's Foreign Policy Under Putin', Paper prepared
for the Conference on 'Russia—Ten Years After', Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, Washington DC, 7-9 June 2001; and Robert Legvold,
'Russia's Unformed Foreign Policy',
Foreign Affairs
80/5 (Sept./Oct. 2001).
5.
SIPRI Yearbook 2000: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security
(Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000) p.253.
6.
See for example, Alexi Arbatov (a member of the Duma Defense Committee),
'Russia and NATO—Ten Years After', Paper prepared for the Conference on
'Russia—Ten Years After', Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
Washington DC, 7-9 June 2001.
