ABSTRACT
For India’s economy to expand, society to develop, and soft power to flourish – as this country of 1.3 billion people seeks its rightful place in the comity of nations – India’s foreign policy in the twenty-first century has been dominated by the pursuit of an enabling environment in its neighborhood and throughout the world. India has new security threats today and needs more resources in terms of money, technology, ideas, and creativity to continue its transition after three decades of reforms and opening to the outside world. India’s tremendous worldwide influence is clear in its nimble foreign policy approach and several creative cooperative projects with other nations. When P.V. Narsimha Rao was the prime minister of India at the time, he introduced the “Look-East Policy” at the beginning of the 1990s. India’s perspective and position in the rapidly expanding global economy have been purposefully reoriented because of the Look-East Policy. India and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) have made several bilateral, regional, and sub-regional efforts since the Policy’s start to ensure its success. In the twenty-first century, it is expected that India’s foreign policy would run into certain contemporary trends, which is what this article tries to emphasize. The study also examines the adjustments that have influenced India’s foreign policy’s content and course in the modern age.
Keywords: India, foreign policy, Look East Policy, ASEAN, Indo-Pacific, regional security order
Introduction
The set of principles, interests, and objectives that a country advances in its relations with other countries are collectively referred to as foreign policy. [1]The focus of foreign policy shifts in response to shifting international circumstances, even though it has some basic qualities and is not a static idea. India’s history, culture, geography, and economy are a few factors that affect its foreign policy. The aims are interests that are articulated in the context of conducting relations with another state and are clearly defined. Academics disagree sharply about the precise place of national interest in the creation of foreign policy. One school of thinking holds that national interest should always guide foreign policy decisions. H.J. Morgenthau also thinks that foreign policy should continually work to defend national interests. Its goal is to safeguard the national interests of other nations, which may or may not be said in this way while [2]formulating foreign policy; national interest concerns always have an impact on a country’s decision-makers. Eventually, Indian foreign policy will have to confront Jawaharlal Nehru’s incredible legacy.[3] H.J. Morgenthau also thinks that foreign policy should continually work to defend national interests. Its goal is to safeguard the national interests of other nations, which may or may not be said in this way while formulating foreign policy; national interest concerns always have an impact on a country’s decision-makers. In time, Indian foreign policy will have to confront Jawaharlal Nehru’s great legacy. Disentangling Nehru’s contributions from India’s never-ending political battles as the nation’s first Prime Minister is even more challenging.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, predicted that the Pacific will someday replace the Atlantic as the center of the world in his 1944 book the “Discovery of India.” Even while India is not a member of the Pacific, it will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the region. India will also develop as a key economic and political hub for Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean region. She plays a crucial economic and geopolitical role in a part of the world that is expected to grow in the future. Nehru also said that India will need to play a significant role in issues relating to the security of Asia and the Indian Ocean, particularly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The declaration claims that India’s “Look East” policy would change the topography and geopolitics of the area in the future. In this context, India must play a significant role in resolving the possibilities and problems faced by its neighbors in terms of geography, history, politics, economics, and institutions. South-East Asian assessments of India’s potential to play a role in Asia would be significantly changed by India’s ability to foster and govern a stable, peaceful, and wealthy South Asia. India’s strained ties with Pakistan limit its ability to demand respect throughout Asia.
India prioritizes creating a self-sufficient socialist society in the face of economic liberalization and transformation to create a modern economy based on free markets that allow for more global commerce and investment. India has reached a turning point in economic integration with the rest of the world. India’s foreign policy would be influenced by its economy. Briefly, India’s Look East Policy is the intersection of economic resolve and international stature.
Additionally, he promised to keep up our bilateral and multilateral relations with ASEAN and to improve our knowledge of and interactions with specific ASEAN nations, bodies, and procedures. In the year 2000, India approved the South-East Asia nuclear weapons Free Zone Protocol. (Saenz). During the first summit in Cambodia in November 2002, India was once more accepted as a summit-level partner. In his remarks at the inaugural India-ASEAN summit in 2002, Singapore’s Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong referred to China and India as the two wings of the ASEAN plane.
As the greater political and strategic landscape in which they run changes, India’s strategic involvement with South and Southeast Asia will as well. [4]Long-standing friendly relations between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as Myanmar and Thailand, have been strengthened by the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Initiative, which integrates these three nations with Myanmar and Thailand into an India-led sub-regional cooperation framework. The relationship between India and Indonesia is friendly once more. Regarding ASEAN and its area,
Factors Influenced by Indian Foreign Policy
To advance its national interests, India has and will continue to prioritize achieving strategic autonomy in its foreign policy. India’s top security concerns are access to technology, energy security, marine security, internal security, and sustainable economic development. The international system is related to this strategic autonomy, and for India, a key question is what international system would be beneficial to it.
India favors a non-polarized, non-hegemonic world because Indian autonomy is increased. It is important to consider two global trends while analyzing India’s security concerns, as well as its relationships with the surrounding area and beyond: hegemony and globalization. The strongest military force on the globe and in the region is the United States. Power is becoming more dispersed because of networked interconnection and globalization, which is trying to counteract this power concentration.
A focus is being placed on military modernization and weapon system improvements, as well as an inclusive nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence and a policy of “No First Use,” to strengthen foreign security. [5]The question of how military modernization affects political stability will be more crucial as Asia’s defense spending increases. Enhancing regional stability and expanding India’s influence into South-East Asia and Central Asia have both been goals of foreign policy initiatives. The European Union and the United States are also developing tighter alliances.
Indian Foreign Policy made measures to improve its standing in world politics
Some Indian scholars assert that the BJP-led government’s decision to conduct nuclear testing in 1998 catapulted India into the limelight and the lower echelons of the big nations. After the nuclear testing, there has been a renewed assertiveness in Indian foreign policy. Successive Indian administrations have not given up on the Nehruvian view of world affairs. However, there is a fresh pragmatism and confidence due to Nehru’s high aims and positive self-image.
Additionally, India is quickly moving away from the old justification of enhancing political and economic power and toward the new one of the power of ideas. India is striving to set up strategic political and economic ties on a bilateral, regional, and global level that offer considerable security benefits after being freed from the structural restrictions of the Cold War. India’s foreign policy, which during the Cold War was defined by non-alignment, now appears to be adopting a strategy of neo-non-alignment, in which it involves several nations to meet its diverse aims and security requirements regional stability is essential for India to expand outside the region and must be preserved.
All of India’s neighbors have seen improvements in relations, which is positive for the nation. The peace process with Pakistan is producing new dividends in the west, while border discussions and increased commerce with China are producing new benefits and operating space for India in the east. India has made remarkable efforts to take part in regional affairs. To project India into the region and encourage alliance formation, it has filed for membership and involvement (even if simply as an observer) in regional organizations in Southeast Asia and Central Asia. These endeavors have been driven by both political and economic factors.
According to some observers, this not only proves India’s expanding economic influence but also gives the ASEAN countries a welcome counterbalance to China. China takes part in every regional body, including ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit (EAS), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where it is expanding its influence in Central Asia (SCO). It is important to think about whether India previously hyphenated with Pakistan before doing so with China. India views this as a natural trading partner with a region with whom it has close historical and economic links rather than as a counterweight.
This is also in line with India’s strategic vision for the Indian Ocean, which, according to the Ministry of Defence’s Annual Report, defines maritime security as extending from the Straits of Malacca in Southeast Asia to the Gulf of Hormuz in West Asia. Some of the busiest oil and raw material sea routes in the world are in this huge marine region, and both are crucial to India’s long-term economic development and, so, to her financial stability. India is also earning considerable political and economic mileage from the economically significant and noticeable Indian Diasporas, as well as from the growing political awareness of India’s influence in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Perspectives and Prospects on India’s Engagement with South-East Asia
The relationships between India and the major countries and their neighbors have been affected by the shifting features of the global environment. Military and domestic political considerations have affected the direction of policy toward areas at various times. This perspective may be used to examine the relationship between India and Southeast Asian countries. India and Southeast Asia are now connected through a complicated route. Early in the 20th century, the desire to fight colonialism brought nations together, but during the Cold War, East-West competition caused their political, security, and economic interests to diverge.
On the Asian continent, South-East Asian countries make up India’s second ring of neighbors. As Stephen Cohen notes, India has neighbors, and its extended neighborhood includes South-East Asian nations as well as those in Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf. Due to her extensive historical, cultural, and naval ties to Southeast Asian nations, scholars claim that India is familiar with them. After gaining its freedom, India looked to set up itself in a new Asian market. India was drawn to and intrigued by Southeast Asia, especially while colonialism remained in some parts of the region.
Three presumptions underpinned Prime Minister Nehru’s vision of a revived Asia and India’s significant role in changing the region’s fate, each of which predicted present policy direction. India’s geostrategic importance in Asia was initially proclaimed by Nehru, who said that it was found at the intersection of western, northern, eastern, and south-eastern Asia. Second, its origins in history and culture were closely tied to Asia’s overall expansion across time.
India’s domestic industrialization policy was one of “import substitution,” with the government in charge of the “commanding heights of the economy.” India has had minimal interaction with Southeast Asia due to the pressures of the local and global environments. Both the country and the area are opposed to traveling to India. A few feeble attempts have been made to involve India in current security discussions, but nothing major has appeared from them. Southeast Asian countries agreed to create a Southeast Asian association after seeing the advantages of a regional multilateral effort.
However, Southeast Asia’s ambition to seek regionalization and the establishment of ASEAN in 1968 challenged India’s inward-looking mindset. Additionally, the ASEAN countries considered India’s active involvement in the Bangladesh issue to be an improper intrusion into Pakistan’s internal affairs. India’s extensive links to the Soviet Union and her cordial friendship with Vietnam alarmed the ASEAN countries.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
It will never be easy to prove that anything influences political decisions in either a positive or negative way, especially without original research. Even then, the research will only apply to individuals who were questioned, and interviews do not always yield the answers they are looking for, for the same reasons Growing did in the chapter. The interests of the public and the nation should always come first in whatever decision the government makes. This would show the common person that these judgments are based on reliable information and a solid, reliable decision-making process. Naturally, one is aware that this is not always the case and that other factors are considered when making any decision.
Without one’s views playing a role in the decision-making process, it would be challenging to make a choice. It is important to realize that the conclusions drawn in this thesis are not as clear-cut as those drawn in earlier research. As Peter Black said in the chapter “Believing in television’s power is somewhat akin to belief in life after death,”
This chapter will elaborate on the research approach already discussed, outlining the models and methods used throughout the study for this work. More crucially, the chapter will look at how the author aims to connect the lines of evidence in a logical order, bolstering some of the arguments with proof, and then illuminating the conclusion of the thesis with instances from recent history.
The thesis will first examine the thesis statement and then outline its main topic, which is: What impact do contemporary media outlets have on the decisions that governments make about foreign policy? The topic has multiple sides, each of which leads to a secondary and, eventually, a tertiary inquiry.
However, one must define the impact that the modern media may or may not have to support or refute the argument. Stephen Livingston found three probable fundamental media impacts on foreign policy, which he claims are conceivable results or consequences of media action: The media force may take the form of an accelerator, an obstruction, or a body that sets the agenda. Subgroups can be created from these; he refers to the full description as “Conceptual Variations of the CNN Effect.”
To further clarify the concept, the media effects will be divided into the following groups for this thesis, as shown in Table 1. Two more requirements from those given in Livingston’s definition have been added at the author’s discretion. The “Accelerant” media impact category has been expanded to include the sub-effect of prompt execution of a law that has already been passed.
On the other hand, and in line with that logic, the media may also stifle political decision-making by overburdening the decision-makers with data. Therefore, all remaining media impacts will be investigated in this thesis except the media’s impact on operational security and its role as a decision-making inhibitor.
The Supporting Issues
Can the media impact society?
The media must exert influence over a decision-maker to have an effect, which is described as a change (marked by an action or reaction that is either positive or negative in nature). In the framework of this theory, it is irrelevant whether media influence has an impact on the politician directly or indirectly through the public, leading to a response from the politician due to an actual or perceived impact on the public. In other words, it must be possible for the impact of the current media.
Effective presentations can be either aural, visual, or a combination of the two, depending on the situation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the presentational effectiveness of contemporary media.
The topics discussed should be topical and pertinent, but most importantly, they should be observable. The thesis will examine “saturation,” or the volume of news that is now available, and examine how this issue affects the audience.
As one might expect, the thesis at this point may need to go further to decide what stimuli have the most psychological impact. For instance, does the mix of audio-visual effects matter in affecting a person’s emotional opinion? Is a visual effect preferable to a verbal one? For this, the paper will need to stray from the primary topic to finish the definition and supply a thorough response to this issue.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Numerous papers, books, and theses fell were shoved or just happened to land in the author’s lap when she was studying this thesis. It didn’t take long for me to understand how unusual the angle from which this thesis approached the media-political interaction was. Even just knowing that created questions about whether there would be any study resources accessible to use in examining the subject. Ironically, most of the material and data came through the Internet, a source that will be examined in some depth in this thesis. Most of the research data used to get answers to some of the secondary questions were also found on the World Wide Web (WWW).
The literature review for this thesis was done in three stages, two of which suited the research technique that will be described in chapter 3; the first stage, as well as the method that did not meet the thesis study model specification, just provided the author with a backdrop against which to work. According to the research approach, the author started by considering whether the media may affect decisions and why it would be relevant. The author next looked for instances to show how the media had previously affected governmental foreign policy decision-making. Numerous pieces of literature were accessible, which made it possible to develop a baseline of information about how the media affects foreigners.
None of the works found examined the impact or potential impact of the modern media (as defined in this thesis) upon the decisions made by governments about foreign policy; instead, the majority of these examined the relationship between the government or military and the media, rather than the impact of the media on foreign policy. However, added significant literary discoveries made it possible to finish the study for this thesis.
Suggestion:
Like everything else in physics, the media must exert a force to have an impact.
However, to exert such power, the media must both have a tool to do so—a narrative that will have an impact—as well as the ability to do so—be noticed. It would appear straightforward to prove that the media is capable of both having something concrete to apply and being able to apply that item appropriately to address the first half of this thesis issue. Many of the obstacles to news creation have been removed by modern satellite communications. There are not many if any, locations staying on the earth where satellite communications are not possible. This implies that a television report may be produced and then at once transmitted back to the home studio for transmission on the following news show, or even live if needed. A better informed and receptive voting public has access to quick images thanks to real-time television and news coverage.
Modern technologies and television news media also can create news when none exists. Nik Growing, an author, social scientist, and news correspondent claims that the satellite dish’s capability to spark real-time discourse at the scene of an incident may be used to create news rather than just report it.
The amount of time available to make crucial choices in government is shortened by the pace at which the news is transmitted. The size and price of the media production equipment have decreased, which has accelerated the creation and transmission of news items. The speed at which a final news report or article can be transmitted increases in tandem with this portability, but more crucial than the speed at which a report can be delivered is the second-order influence of that speed on the time available to people who make judgments
In the earlier several years, there has been a sharp rise in news coverage accessible. The news media is now more accessible because of modern technology. Television news reporting is a 24/7 endeavor that asks for responses and viewpoints from the public and leaders alike at all hours of the day and night. Additionally, there are more displays available to watch the news on. In the earlier several years, there has been a sharp rise in news coverage accessible. The news media is now more accessible because of modern technology. Television news reporting is a 24/7 endeavor that asks for responses and viewpoints from the public and leaders alike at all hours of the day and night. Additionally, there are more displays available to watch the news on.
Conclusion
We now have a clear picture of how India’s foreign policy has changed throughout the course of its three historical eras. Over the past 70 years, the policy has altered and developed, often steadily but occasionally dramatically in response to rapidly shifting regional or global conditions. Fortunately, foreign policy has been simpler to shape and adjust than domestic policy, on which governments of the day have met intense resistance because it elicits more unanimity across the Indian political spectrum. The effectiveness of diplomacy and foreign policy is limited by the political, social, and economic stability of a nation. India has had the good fortune to see robust growth and prosperity during the past three decades.
This has given India’s foreign policy more sway and enabled the allocation of significantly more resources for the conduct of diplomacy, including consolidating and bolstering our diplomatic presence across the world. India has made it obvious that it wants to take the lead in the international arena and be recognized as a “pole” under the current administration. India will be able to achieve this aim with continued domestic stability and prosperity as well as political agreement on broad foreign policy principles.
SRIJA SINGH
2ND YEAR LAW STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, NOIDA
[1] Jerome B. Cohen, “Problems of Economic Development in India,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1953):196-208
[2] Shyam J. Kamath.Foreign Aid and India: Financing the Leviathan State. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, May 1992, available at http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-170.html
3 Shyam J. Kamath.Foreign Aid and India: Financing the Leviathan State. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, May 1992, available at http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-170.html
[5] Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speech at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on February 25, 2005, available at http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=78