India And Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present

2021·19.67 MB·english

by  Shivshankar Menon

One of India’s most distinguished foreign policy thinkers addresses
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the many questions facing India as it seeks to find its way in
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the increasingly complex world of Asian geopolitics.
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“In this brilliant examination of India’s recent past as an Asian power, the distinguished
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Indian diplomat Shivshankar Menon gives us much to consider about its future as well.
His evocation of India as central to Asia’s geopolitics and yet also set apart from it is a
major contribution to our understanding of this great, rising power in this Asian century.”
—Nicholas Burns, former U.S. under secretary of state;
professor, Harvard University
“This book is a tour de force by one of today’s most perceptive strategic thinkers. Menon A
deftly surveys how India has navigated its geopolitical environment in the past, while
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illuminating the international landscape and challenges it faces today. Anyone interested
in Asia’s future should read this book.” I
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—M. Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science,
and director, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology NI
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“An important work that restores India into the Asian story, and a timely reminder that
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active engagement with Asia and the world will not just be a choice, but also a necessity
for New Delhi.” EI
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—Tanvi Madan, senior fellow and director of the India Project, O
the Brookings Institution
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“Shivshankar Menon is one of the most distinguished diplomats in the world. In his latest O
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book, he has brilliantly laid out the stages of India from independence to the rise of Modi.
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When he looks to history, he focuses on Asian geopolitics. But when he turns to the D
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future, he opens the aperture to the global trend of illiberality. He believes India, with no
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existential outside threat and a vast diversity in its populace, can afford expansive rights
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of all its citizens.”
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—Strobe Talbott, distinguished fellow, the Brookings Institution;
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U.S. deputy secretary of state (1994–2001)
Shivshankar Menon is a visiting professor at Ashoka University.
He served as foreign secretary from 2006 to 2009 and as national
security adviser to the prime minister of India from 2010 to 2014.
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.brookings.edu/bipress
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india and asian geopolitics
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India
and
Asian
Geopolitics
THE PAST, PRESENT
SHIVSHANKAR MENON
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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Copyright © 2021
the brookings institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
www.brookings.edu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the
Brookings Institution Press.
The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to re-
search, education, and publication on important issues of domestic and for-
eign policy. Its principal purpose is to bring the highest quality independent
research and analysis to bear on current and emerging policy problems. Inter-
pretations or conclusions in Brookings publications should be understood to be
solely those of the authors.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021932887
ISBN 9780815737230 (pbk : alk. paper)
ISBN 9780815737247 (ebook)
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro
Composition by Cindy Stock
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
I. THE PAST
1 The Stage and Inheritance 11
2 Independence 37
3 Cold War Asia 65
4 The Sixties 103
5 Coming of Age 123
6 Hard Times 151
7 The Dam Bursts 186
8 The Globalization Decades 213
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vi Contents
II. THE PRESENT
9 What Globalization Did to Asia’s Geopolitics 239
10 Viewing Asia from India 268
11 China Rising 288
12 India and China 317
13 India’s Tasks 340

Afterword: India’s Destiny 373

Notes 375

Index 395
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x 
Acknowledgments
Like every book, this one owes debts of intellectual and physical gratitude to
many friends and institutions.
The book was conceived at Ashoka University outside New Delhi. A huge
debt and many thanks to Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Srinath Raghavan, Rudra
Chaudhury, and Joanna Korey at Ashoka. Also thanks to my 2018 students,
whose fresh eyes brought back some of the wonder of seeing familiar things for
the first time.
Much of the writing was done at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Na-
tional University of Singapore, where Gopinath Pillai, Raja Mohan, and many
others gave me the perfect environment to write and to try out ideas. Two re-
viewers helped to clarify some of my confusions and greatly improved the text
with their suggestions and comments. I could not have asked for more encour-
aging yet rigorous guides than Bill Finan at the Brookings Institution Press and
Ranjana Sengupta at Penguin Random House India, who kept the faith in this
manuscript and whose suggestions vastly improved it. My thanks also to Janet
Walker Chirlin, whose painstaking hard work made this text readable.
Several friends, colleagues, and students have suffered my ideas and set me
straight while I was working on this book, but I am solely responsible for what
is in it, good, bad, and indifferent.
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viii Acknowledgments
But most of all I am grateful to Mohini, who keeps me real and true, and
without whom this book would never have been done.
This book is for my grandchildren, Kabir, Amaara, Samira, and Ahren.
Their world will be quite different, and I hope that this book will give them a
sense of what my generation’s times were like.
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SHUTTERSTOCK
India in Asia
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