Strategic Conundrums : Reshaping India's Foreign Policy - A Book Review

How would India tackle the strategic conundrums that are looming large? How should India shape its foreign policy decisions in a turbulent world? What are the security challenges confronting India? 

Illustration by The Geostrata

Well, Ambassador Rajiv Sikri's book ‘Strategic Conundrums: Reshaping India's Foreign Policy offers interesting answers to these issues, theoretical explanations, and pragmatic suggestions for a new and ambitious India. 

Firstly, let's understand Ambassador Sikri's remarkable conceptualization of India's geography consisting of five arcs carrying potential and peril.

The first one is the ‘arc of prosperity’ spread across India, Southeast Asia and East Asia. The second arc is the ‘arc of energy’ comprising the energy-rich region of the Persian Gulf, going across the Caspian Sea to Russia's Siberia, Far East and Arctic regions.

The third arc is the ‘arc of instability’ engulfing India from Myanmar to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran right up to the Mediterranean Sea. Fourth is the ‘arc of uncertainty’ comprising Nepal, Tibet, East Turkestan and Central Asia. The fifth and final ‘arc of communication’ -  the Indian Ocean, is perhaps the most important of all. All these regions carry immense geopolitical and geoeconomic implications for India.  

Moreover, sufficient space is also allotted to India's security concerns, emanating from all directions and how they can be addressed.

The author paints a picture for readers through the brilliant conceptualisation of three security rings around India, the first one being  India's immediate neighbourhood: the Hindu Kush to the Irrawaddy River.

The second ring includes India's extended neighbourhood comprising the choke points of the Indian Ocean. The third and outermost ring extends from Suez to the strategic space of Eurasia. Each region receives adequate attention in the book offering interesting perspectives for readers. 

Ambassador Sikri follows a methodological approach in the book offering first a brief overview of a specific country or region, and its overall relationship with India, followed by polemic issues between the said country/region with India, strategic imperatives, policy recommendations for strategists and policymakers, ending with a note of caution or optimism. This balanced and nuanced outlook provides a key understanding of major foreign policy imperatives.

India is following a Neighborhood first policy, accordingly, the Indian subcontinent and the neighbouring regions have been given utmost importance in this book. The author elaborates upon historical roots, common heritage and conflict between modern identities in the subcontinent with clinical precision. 

What divides or unites the subcontinent? It's not religion or race but rather culture which serves as the basis of identity. It's also a unifying factor.

But attempts to preserve one’s cultural identity to the exclusion of others, and assertion of political identity instead of promoting a common heritage has made culture a debilitating factor, concomitantly leading to a fractured region, where regional cooperation has taken a backseat.  

Why can't South Asia become a regional power to reckon with, a prosperous region with huge bargaining power? After all we have seen the successes of  ASEAN and the EU albeit they have challenges too. The author analyzes SAARC as a vehicle of regional cooperation and offers convincing explanations of its failure in propelling South Asia into a region with global influence.

The in-depth discussion of each neighboring country through dedicated chapters provides wisdom and great insights to the policymakers and practitioners, as India navigates through turbulent times. 

While the relevance of the continental North in India's security calculus is emphasized, equal weightage has also been given to the maritime south, a heavyweight in India's geoeconomics and geopolitical calculus.

Offering a panoramic view of pillars of Act East policy - MGC and BIMSTEC, the importance of the Indian Ocean and the Indo-Pacific strategy is also explored comprehensively.

The remarkable thing about this book is the pragmatic policy suggestions befitting a rising and assertive India, be it playing the Tibet card right or crafting a strategy of psychological warfare against China. Significantly, the clever use of East Turkestan (rare mention of Xinjiang) throughout the book isn't lost on the readers.

Recognizing China as a principal geoeconomic challenge, Ambassador Sikri offers us a different lens of viewing China, for instance, it's in the Eurasian character of China, its control of Tibet, where major security challenges for India lie, not only as an East Asian country. 

While commenting on the inability of India to capitalize on the immense goodwill of India among the Central Asian Republics, an accurate analysis of why relations with countries, for example, Japan remained on the sidelines is also presented.

The author emphasizes the imperatives of ASEAN centrality in Southeast Asia and includes Russia in Central Asian strategy. The author also emphasizes and highlights the crucial role stakeholders, other than the government, can play in advancing India's interests, necessitating a multi-stakeholder approach to deal with countries at bilateral and regional levels. 

As the new millennium dawned, a new future for India beckoned. India’s importance increased as a burgeoning economic power and stable democratic power with huge demographic dividend and countries began to engage with India earnestly.  

A big country, making a comeback to its rightful place, the strategic conundrums in its pursuit to wield global influence need strategic thinking, skilful diplomacy and the development of its comprehensive National power.

Once again, Ambassador Sikri offers rich theoretical insights into synergistic efforts between military power or hard power and diplomacy, which serve as essential instruments of State power.  Moreover, there is an emphasis on economic and defense diplomacy which are important components of foreign policy. 

Public administration and management thinkers would agree with the erudite author that leadership implies not just military power but also innovative and inspiring ideas which should be reflected in India’s role as a leader of Global South. 

The author offers accurate diagnoses of the state of the world today, India's military, strategic and economic constraints in its march to becoming a global power and the relevance of India's geography including an emphatic emphasis on its neighbourhood among others. This, combined with a systematic examination of issues and policy suggestions, makes the book indispensable to the wide strata of society, from students to experts.

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BY ADITI CHOUDHARY

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com