Subcontinental Drift: Domestic Politics and India’s Foreign Policy

IF 0.7 Q3 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Strategic Analysis Pub Date : 2023-03-04 DOI:10.1080/09700161.2023.2190617
Anuttama Banerji
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Abstract

T he International Relations scholarship in India has rarely paid heed to domestic politics as a variable in foreign policy analysis. Most such attempts have focused on anecdotal discussions; this is mainly to do with the securitised nature of the foreign policy discourse in India. Even in cases where the scholarship has tried to engage with domestic determinants, the focus has been on relations with, or policy towards, specific States or they are treatises on the contribution of statesmen. Consequently, other internal factors that have potentially influenced Indian foreign policy have received scant attention. This is where Rajesh Basrur’s Subcontinental Drift stands apart and reframes ‘a version of realism’, acknowledging ‘the importance of structure of the international system’ and incorporating domestic politics as a determinant of Indian policy-making (p.13). As a neorealist, Basrur introduces the ‘moral dimension’ as an intervening variable in his assessment (p.20) and endorses the view that ‘suboptimal outcomes are more likely under normal conditions, whereas structurally driven policy responses are the norm when the security threats are high’ (p.195). Basrur argues that ‘the problem of political uncertainty has been India’s constant companion’ (p.3), which he calls ‘subcontinental drift’ and classifies as voluntary and involuntary. The notion of involuntary drift is explained as a political scenario in which limited control is exercised by the political leadership due to the intervention of domestic players. He gives the example of relations with the United States and Sri Lanka to explain how domestic factors in both cases hindered or acted as material constraints on policy-making. For instance, Basrur notes, the ‘inordinate influence’ of smaller and regional parties in ‘hindering policy makers’ pursuit of security objectives’ in both cases (p.105). In this vein, Basrur traces the historical growth of India–US bilateral relations and argues that India is now a critical partner of the United States from being just an ‘obdurate proliferator of nuclear weapons’ (p.42). He notes that the shift in semantics occurred due to the growth of an encompassing security partnership that began with the Kicklighter proposals in 1991 that ‘recommended strategic dialogue, training and other exchanges between the two militaries’ (p.50) and reached a crucial juncture with the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005. Basrur has Strategic Analysis, 2023 Vol. 47, No. 2, 183–185, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2023.2190617
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次大陆漂移:国内政治与印度外交政策
印度的国际关系学者很少把国内政治作为外交政策分析中的一个变量来关注。大多数此类尝试都集中在轶事讨论上;这主要与印度外交政策话语的证券化性质有关。即使在学者试图研究国内决定因素的情况下,其重点也一直放在与特定国家的关系或对特定国家的政策上,或者是关于政治家贡献的论文。因此,其他可能影响印度外交政策的内部因素很少受到重视。这就是Rajesh Basrur的《次大陆漂移》脱颖而出的地方,它重新构建了“现实主义的一个版本”,承认“国际体系结构的重要性”,并将国内政治纳入印度政策制定的决定因素(第13页)。作为一个新现实主义者,Basrur在他的评估中引入了“道德维度”作为一个干预变量(第20页),并赞同“在正常情况下更有可能出现次优结果,而当安全威胁很高时,结构驱动的政策反应是常态”(第195页)的观点。Basrur认为,“政治不确定性问题一直困扰着印度”(第3页),他称之为“次大陆漂移”,并将其分为自愿和非自愿两类。非自愿漂移的概念被解释为一种政治情景,在这种情况下,由于国内参与者的干预,政治领导层行使有限的控制。他以与美国和斯里兰卡的关系为例,解释了这两个国家的国内因素如何阻碍或成为决策的实质制约因素。例如,Basrur指出,在这两种情况下,较小的和区域性政党在“阻碍决策者追求安全目标”方面的“过度影响”(第105页)。在这方面,Basrur追溯了印美双边关系的历史发展,并认为印度现在是美国的重要合作伙伴,而不仅仅是一个“顽固的核武器扩散者”(第42页)。他指出,语义上的转变是由于一种全面的安全伙伴关系的发展,这种伙伴关系始于1991年的Kicklighter提案,该提案“建议两军之间进行战略对话、训练和其他交流”(第50页),并在2005年签署印美核协议时达到了一个关键时刻。Basrur有《战略分析》,2023年第47卷第2期,183-185页,https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2023.2190617
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来源期刊
Strategic Analysis
Strategic Analysis INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-
CiteScore
0.80
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发文量
82
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