PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Changing International Political Order
Discuss the relevance of the normative ethos of the Non-Aligned Movement in magnifying India’s soft power in pursuit of her national interest.
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
BODY FLOW ethos named: sovereignty, non-interference, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, peaceful coexistence (Havana Declaration, 1979) —» Lehmann: capability deficit — non-alignment as soft-power instrument — T. V. Paul: limited soft balancing, naming and shaming — partial credit: decolonisation, containing proliferation — ethos survives in new instruments — Jaishankar: era over, independence of action continues; rejection # rush to alignment — reframed as strategic autonomy — legitimises balancing among major powers — South-South: ITEC, International Solar Alliance — anti-colonial memory becomes standing in the Global South
Body flow
COUNTER-VIEW Nehru at Belgrade: tests condemned, initiator unnamed — equidistance can equate aggressor and victim — attraction fades once impartiality looks contrived — Mehta: contingent balancing — Washington after 1962, Soviet treaty of 1971 — Pant: movement dying, drop old shibboleths
Counter-view
CONCLUSION ROUTES R1 platform thinned, vocabulary intact — Shankar: bridge and balancing third pole between US and China — values that once made up for weakness now add to strength R2 relevance shifts from organisation to ethos — strategic autonomy as non- alignment's afterlife → soft power serves interest only while the values stay credible
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
