Is Asian geopolitics becoming increasingly complex? Since its independence in 1947, what has been India’s approach to its shifting environment? In spite of having been a leader of the Nonaligned Movement during the Cold War, has India been largely an after-thought for global leaders? What is the significance of India’s current status as a counterweight to China? And how are India’s policies likely to develop in response to current and new challenges?
All of those are the important questions addressed in this book by a former Indian foreign secretary and national security adviser.
Though written before the Covid Pandemic changed the world as well as Asia and India, Menon’s conclusion seems still to hold: India has become more and more affected, and will become more and more affected, by what happens in the world around it.
However, Menon argues a geopolitical case, though it should be self-evident, for India to increasingly pursue a pluralistic, open, and inclusive world order. Sadly, the current government seems to be headed in the opposite direction – the question is: will even Menon’s geopolitical argument result in any course correction?
