IndiaUS Relations in the Age of Uncertainty
In the initial phase of the Obama administration, Indias ruling class and strategic community formed a perception that the spirit of strategic partnership between the two countries might be diluted on account of China looming large in the priorities of this administration. Despite occasional hiccups in their relationship, this perception was overshadowed by the administrations recognition of Indias role as counterweight to China in the Asia-Pacific region. This book addresses and re-evaluates the perceptions, policies and perspectives of public policy makers and bureaucratic elites in both India and the US in setting and articulating the tone, tenor and substance of the multi-faceted ties between the two countries. The scope of the book is not exclusively limited to the bilateral relationship in the critical areas such as the Indo-US nuclear deal, defence, security, and strategic partnership. Its concerns and ramifications are much wider in global and regional contexts, covering security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, the interface between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), China as a factor in India-US relations, and the fallout of the New Delhi-Washington partnership on South Asia.
B.M. Jain, is a former Senior Fellow at the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR, New Delhi) in India, and was Visiting Professor in the Departments of Political Science at both Cleveland State University and Binghamton University, USA. Previously he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Rajasthan at Jaipur, India, and Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. He has been a visiting scholar at numerous universities and research institutes in the USA, Europe, and Asia.
Rethinking Asia and International Relations
Series Editor Emilian Kavalski, Australian Catholic University (Sydney)
This series seeks to provide thoughtful consideration both of the growing prominence of Asian actors on the global stage and the changes in the study and practice of world affairs that they provoke. It intends to offer a comprehensive parallel assessment of the full spectrum of Asian states, organisations, and regions and their impact on the dynamics of global politics.
The series seeks to encourage conversation on:
what rules, norms, and strategic cultures are likely to dominate international life in the Asian Century;
how will global problems be reframed and addressed by a rising Asia;
which institutions, actors, and states are likely to provide leadership during such shifts to the East;
whether there is something distinctly Asian about the emerging patterns of global politics.
Such comprehensive engagement not only aims to offer a critical assessment of the actual and prospective roles of Asian actors, but also seeks to rethink the concepts, practices, and frameworks of analysis of world politics.
This series invites proposals for interdisciplinary research monographs undertaking comparative studies of Asian actors and their impact on the current patterns and likely future trajectories of international relations. Furthermore, it offers a platform for pioneering explorations of the ongoing transformations in global politics as a result of Asias increasing centrality to the patterns and practices of world affairs.
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IndiaUS Relations in the Age of Uncertainty
An uneasy courtship
B.M. Jain
First published 2016
by Routledge
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2016 B.M. Jain
The right of B.M. Jain to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Jain, B.M., author.
Title: IndiaUS relations in the age of uncertainty : an uneasy courtship / by B.M. Jain.
Other titles: IndiaUnited States relations in the age of uncertainty
Series: Rethinking Asia and international relations | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037935
Subjects: LCSH: United StatesForeign relationsIndia. | IndiaForeign relationsUnited States. | World politics21st century.
Classification: LCC E183.8.I4 J274 2016 | DDC 327.73054dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037935
ISBN: 978-1-4724-3895-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-58833-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Out of House Publishing
To My Parents
Contents
This book has grown out of a research project on IndiaUS strategic partnership in the twenty-first century. I carried out this project as a Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi) at the Institute of Development (IDS), Jaipur, India. Its central objective was to test the hypothesis that the analytical framework of complex interdependence was useful and appropriately relevant to the study of the multifaceted relationship between India and the United States.
Perhaps, this is the first independent volume on IndiaUS relations brought out so far in which the theory of complex interdependence, developed by Robert A. Keohane and Joseph Nye, has been applied to examine myriad dimensions of Indo-US relations given the complexity of their bilateral ties, rooted in Cold War geopolitics as well as asymmetric power capabilities. Besides, I have introduced a few other important concepts like geo-economics, geopsychology, cooperative partnership, and alliance of interests. Given the space constraint, it was not possible to elaborate these concepts, although I very much desired to do so.
As per the chapter scheme, I have devoted a comprehensive chapter to the historical background of IndiaUS relations, beginning from the pre-Cold War period, through the Cold War period to the end of the Cold War, and the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991, in order to illustrate how and why IndiaUS relations have been profoundly complex and uncertain.
