PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Recent Developments in Foreign Policy — Part 1

Evaluate India’s vision of a new world order.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 “new world order” from Bush 1991 (rule-based) → unipolarity fading into an Asian Century → India’s answer: multipolar, shared power/responsibility, not a hegemon-swap

Route 2 reformist vision rooted in pluralist heritage → set against China’s “Middle Kingdom” → rebalance the order, not replace it

Body flow

strategic autonomy recast, inaction → action (Jaishankar) → non-alignment → multi-alignment, interest not loyalty (Raja Mohan) → democratise world politics (Avinash Kumar) → G20 2023 (“One Earth, One Family, One Future,” AU entry, Global Biofuels Alliance, IMEC vs BRI) → Voice of the Global South → bridge West–South (Bajpaee) → balancer → leading power

Counter-view

premise contested: bipolar US–China, multipolarity a “costly illusion” (Rajagopalan) → post-hegemonic / multiplex order (Acharya) → so multipolarity is description + goal → yet character reformist not revisionist: BRICS anti-hegemonic without a clean break (Papa & Han) → limits: China security dilemma + few real partners (Farwa), Global-South claim contested (Brazil, Indonesia)

Conclusion routes

Route 1 coherent + distinctive vision → change through inclusion, not disruption

Route 2 verdict hinges on two tests → multipolarity proving more than aspiration + flexible autonomy maturing into consistent leadership at home

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2019, Recent Developments in Foreign Policy — Part 1