From Chanakya to Modi: Evolution of Indias Foreign Policy - Softcover

Aparna Pande

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9353579074 ISBN 13: 9789353579074

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2020

Synopsis

Foreign policy does not exist in a cultural vacuum. It is shaped by national experience and a countrys view of itself. In the case of India, the foreign policy paradigm is as deeply informed by its civilizational heritage as it is by modern ideas about national interest. Even policies that appear to be new contain echoes of themes that recur in history. The two concepts that come and go most frequently in Indian engagement with the world from Chanakya in the third century BCE to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020 are autonomy and independence in decision making. There are also four trends that we can trace: messianic idealism, realism, isolationism and imperial influences ideas that have competed and complemented each other at various points in time. As India pursues modernity and seeks to exercise influence in the contemporary world, an examination of the nation in the context of its history and tradition is crucial. Aparna Pandes From Chanakya to Modi explores the deeper civilizational roots of Indian foreign policy in a manner reminiscent of Walter Russel Meads groundbreaking Special Providence (2001). It identifies the neural roots of Indias engagement with the world outside. An essential addition to every thinking persons library.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Aparna Pande is director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute, Washington D.C. Born in India, Pande received her bachelors and masters degrees in History from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, before receiving an M. Phil in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at Boston University in the United States. She is the author of Making India Great: The Promise of a Reluctant Global Power (2020), Explaining Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Escaping India (Routledge, 2010) and is the editor of Contemporary Handbook on Pakistan (Routledge, 2017).

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9353579074
• ISBN 13: 9789353579074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 236