Beyond South Asia: India's Strategic Evolution and the Reintegration of the Subcontinent

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The Republic of India occupies a key geopolitical and strategic space at the center of the Indian Ocean. How it interacts with the rest of the world will have profound consequences in the 21st century. Beyond South Asia follows the evolution of India's strategic thinking since 1947, providing a comprehensive analysis of its foreign policy worldview. It begins with India's failed attempt to unite and dominate the subcontinent following independence, a strategy that resulted in conflict as its smaller neighbors invited the U.S. and China to the region, resisted intra-regional cooperation, and even violently opposed New Delhi. It then explores how this worldview has shifted as India, needing markets, energy resources, and ways to balance against China, has developed economic and military ties in Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the southern Indian Ocean, and beyond. To do so has required more stability in South Asia, making India more conciliatory toward other countries of the subcontinent. This is in turn leading to a lessening of tensions, enhanced cooperation, and an economic reintegration of the subcontinent, including a burgeoning dtente with Pakistan. This in-depth analysis provides a comprehensive look at the domestic and regional factors that drive India, a key actor in global politics. Written in an accessible manner, it will be of use to students and specialists of Indian foreign policy, South Asian politics, international relations, and security studies and to anyone interested in the future of AfPak, the Indian Ocean region, and America's "strategic pivot."

Reviews

[Padukone's] must-read book ... is an excellent and surprisingly easy read ... Experts in this area and lay readers with zero background in foreign policy alike will gain new insights by picking up a copy. * United States-India Monitor *
Beyond South Asia is an amazing tour de forcean encyclopedic identification and analytical presentation of the major elements confronting India, the SAARC region and related states. Padukone provides an education for those who need to bone up on India and its pluses and minuses as well as for the specialist who will become sensitized to new important related areas. Its also very well written, which enables the reader to more easily comprehend some very complex discussions, and the maps are among the best that I have seen in regard to each of the topics. * Paul Wallace, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA *
By cogently exploring the evolution of India's strategic worldview, Neil Padukone has mapped a terrain that remains largley uncharted. Beyond South Asia is both informative and accessible, a welcome addition to the must-read literature on a rapidly transforming India. It will be of great value to academics, journalists and policymakers interested in the foreign policy choices of an emergent Asian Power. * Harsh V. Pant, Professor of International Relations, King's College London, UK *
Padukone parses a critical challenge confronting India's grand strategy: restoring the Delhi's primacy in South Asia, shattered by the Partition, decades of inward economic orientation and the intervention of great powers. Beyond South Asia offers deep insights into the rising India's recent quest for reconstituting the geopolitical unity of the Subcontinent. * C. Raja Mohan, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, Delhi *
Beyond South Asia sheds new light on India's transition from bilateral to multilateral policies and its impact on South Asian geopolitics. A very useful book on India's emerging foreign policy that could lead to regional reconciliation and a brighter future. * Gen. (ret) Ved P. Malik, former Chief of Staff, Indian Army *
Prime Minister Narendra Modis assumption of office gives the United States and India a chance to reposition our strategic relationship and prepare our two countries for the challenges that lie ahead. Neil Padukones well-crafted and superbly reasoned book is the first in-depth study in many years of the origins, evolution and application of Indian national security doctrine. Students of the U.S.-India relationship and those responsible for shaping our policies toward India will find the book invaluable. * Frank Wisner, former US Ambassador to India *
Neil Padukone's excellent book on the development of India's strategic thought ... is a must read for anyone looking for a historical understanding of Indias actions in its land and maritime neighbourhood. -- Pranay Kotasthane * Pragati: The Indian National Interest *

Author Bio

Neil Padukone is a Public Service Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. His work has been published in Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The National Interest, the Economic and Political Weekly, and Newsweek, among others. He is a graduate of Harvard University, the George Washington University, and Stuyvesant High School.