India’s Grand Strategy

Kanti Bajpai is Professor and Vice Dean (Research), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Saira Basit is Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), Oslo. V. Krishnappa is Director, Futurestrat Learning Systems Private Limited, New Delhi.

‘A must-read for those interested in new thinking in the world's most complex and challenged great power.’ — Stephen Philip Cohen‘An up-to-date, serious and thoughtful treatment of a very vital subject for all who care about India.’ — Meghnad Desai‘Bajpai, Basit and Krishnappa map a terrain that has been barely explored. There is no better introduction to understanding India's grand strategy.’ — C. Raja Mohan‘A decisive refutation of the thesis that India lacks — or has not reflected on — grand strategy. No scholar of Indian national security can afford not to engage [with] it.’ — Ashley J. Tellis‘A valuable introduction to an emerging literature on how India views its [economic] rise and what it means for the world.’ — Sanjaya Baru

• Foreword Arvind Gupta and Sven G. Holtsmark. Acknowledgements. Introduction: India’s Grand Strategic Thought and Practice. 1. ‘Grand Strategic Thought’ in the Ramayana and Mahabharata Swarna Rajagopalan 2. Strategy, Legitimacy and the Imperium: Framing the Mughal Strategic Discourse Jayashree Vivekanandan 3. Liberal Thought and Colonial Military Institutions Srinath Raghavan 4. Indian Grand Strategy: Six Schools of Thought Kanti Bajpai 5. Nehru’s Advocacy of Internationalism and Indian Foreign Policy S. Kalyanaraman 6. Economic Modernisation and the Growing Influence of Neoliberalism in India’s Strategic Thought N.S. Sisodia 7. An Elephant with a Small ‘Footprint’: The Realist Roots of India’s Strategic Thought and Policies Bharat Karnad 8. ‘Jiski Lathi, Uski Bhains’: The Hindu Nationalist View of International Politics Rahul Sagar 9. Securing India: Gandhian Intuitions Siddharth Mallavarapu 10. Indian Strategic Culture: The Pakistan Dimension Ali Ahmed 11. China, in Three Avatars Tanvi Madan 12. Aberrant Conversationalists: India and the United States Since 1947 Rudra Chaudhuri 13. India, Afghanistan and the ‘End Game’? Shanthie Mariet D’Souza 14. Collateral Damage: Iran in a Reconfigured Indian Grand Strategy? Sarang Shidore 15. Redefining India’s Grand Strategy? The Evolving Nature of India’s Israel Policy Nicolas Blarel 16. The Institutional Origins and Determinants of India’s Africa Policy Constantino Xavier. Bibliography. About the Editors. Notes on Contributors. Index