The Us Pivot And Indian Foreign Policy

China's exponential rise and America's relative decline have led to a transition of power in contemporary Asia. The US pivot towards Asia is the most evident manifestation of such a transition, and Indian foreign policy shows signs of a hedging strategy, with attempts to strengthen ties with both China and the US.

The book is a very timely and important work on US foreign policy toward India since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The author traces the trajectory of closer Indo-US relations during the Bush and Obama administrations. The author applies a qualitative methodological approach to describe these changes and explain the factors that explain the strengthened bilateral relationship, especially after decades of irritable relations between the two "estranged democracies." The book compares two factors – (a) the 9/11 attacks; (b) global structural changes after the Cold War – to assess which of these factors best explains closer Indo-US relations over the last two decades. The author's argument seems to be that the explanation lies more in the second factor (structural changes), rather than the first (consequences of the 9/11 attacks). The book should be a fascinating one that provides an excellent analysis of Indo-US relations since India's independence to Obama administrations based on extensive use of key primary sources including interviewing the persons involved in US foreign policy-making process. While the existing literature has mainly focused on the civil-nuclear deal as a turning point for Indo-US relations, this book presented an alternative story for improved Indo-US relations in the 21st century and uncovered the ongoing puzzle. More interestingly, the author showed how Indian diaspora as a 3rd party play role in strengthening Indo-US relations.

In this volume, scholars specializing in different dimensions of foreign-policy analysis examine the dynamics of India's international relations. The volume reviews the economic growth that has propelled it to the status of a globally recognized power, and examines its nuclear policy and maritime strategy as a register of its present capabilities and future aspirations. The news media, often neglected in the study of international politics, are studied as an important index to-and catalysis for-the formulation of government policies. The volume also comprehensively analyses India's bilateral and multilateral relations, their influence on the stability of the subcontinent, their bearing on the country's international presence, and their relevance for its political ambitions.

China's exponential rise and America's relative decline have led to a transition of power in contemporary Asia. The US pivot towards Asia is the most evident manifestation of such a transition, and Indian foreign policy shows signs of a hedging strategy, with attempts to strengthen ties with both China and the US.

From former assistant secretary of state Kurt M. Campbell comes the definitive analysis and explanation of the new major shift in American foreign policy, its interests and assets, to Asia. There is a quiet drama playing out in American foreign policy far from the dark contours of upheaval in the Middle East and South Asia and the hovering drone attacks of the war on terror. The United States is in the midst of a substantial and long-term national project, which is proceeding in fits and starts, to reorient its foreign policy to the East. The central tenet of this policy shift, aka the Pivot, is that the United States will need to do more with and in the Asia-Pacific hemisphere to help revitalize its own economy, to realize the full potential of the region's dramatic innovation, and to keep the peace in the world's most dynamic region where the lion's share of the history of the twenty-first century will be written. This book is about a necessary course correction for American diplomacy, commercial engagement, and military innovation during a time of unrelenting and largely unrewarding conflict. While the United States has intensified its focus on the Asia-Pacific arena relative to previous administrations, much more remains to be done. The Pivot is about that future. It explores how the United States should construct a strategy that will position it to maneuver across the East and offers a clarion call for cunning, dexterity, and ingenuity in the period ahead for American statecraft in the Asia-Pacific region.