The Era of Great Powers and the National Security of India

Abstract

: In the contemporary world, any long-term understanding of the national security should necessarily factor in the de-facto existence of multiple Great Powers without any reigning superpower. This new situation is the result of declining America led western liberal order and emergence of multiple centres of power and civilisation. National security has got disentangled from the super power regime and attained the autonomy and complexity of its own. India, like other emerging powers, is facing a less black and white world order where there are end numbers of opportunities as well as challenges to its foreign policy endeavours. As a post-colonial anti-hegemonic power, which has with zeal guarded the moral and strategic autonomy of its foreign policy, India has quite a good legacy with which to face the era of great powers. The paper aims to throw light on the prospectus and challenges that Indian foreign policy might face in the times when the overarching super power regime is not around and India has to forge ahead its path as an emerging power in the World.