India Briefing, 1989
The Asia Society's annual briefing book on current developments in India is again carried out in a skillful manner. There are solid chapters on Indian economics and politics, the ferment among women, the media and environmental problems. Lloyd I. Rudolph has a particularly penetrating essay on Indian domestic and foreign policy in which he highlights the growth of Indian military power (Indian armed forces now rank fourth after the Soviet Union, China and the United States). According to Rudolph, Australian and Indonesian defense analysts in particular now wonder about India's long-term intentions, and the author sees an unresolved tension between India's effort to be both a world military power and the nonaligned promoter of a nonnuclear, peaceful world.
Related
After being shackled by the government for decades, India's economy has become one of the world's strongest. The country's unique development model -- relying on domestic consumption and high-tech services -- has brought a quarter century of record growth despite an incompetent and heavy-handed state. But for that growth to continue, the state must start modernizing along with Indian society.
India is on the verge of becoming a great power and the swing state in the international system. As a large, multiethnic, economically powerful, non-Western democracy, it will play a key role in the great struggles of the coming years. Washington has recognized the potential of a U.S.-Indian alliance, but translating that potential into reality will require engaging India on its own terms.
India's growing economic and diplomatic prominence is unlikely to be derailed by its territorial dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. But given the risk that the Kashmir issue could spark a nuclear war, it is in India's best interest that it be resolved. Washington should use its influence with Islamabad to broker an agreement and thereby cement its growing strategic partnership with New Delhi.
