PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Indian Foreign Policy: Determinants & Institutions
Explain the major features of India’s Foreign Policy in the 2ist century.
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
RX!-_—« 21st-century IFP breaks from Cold War non-alignment → proactive engagement on many fronts R2 defining feature = multi-alignment → strategic autonomy held with many partners at once (Raja Mohan)
Body flow
multi-alignment (Raja Mohan: US, Russia, France, Japan, ASEAN) → Neighbourhood First (co-existence, connectivity, development) → Act East (from Look East, balance China) → economic diplomacy (Pant: Make in India, Digital India, FTAs) → multilateral activism (Tharoor: UN, BRICS, G20, SCO, UNSC bid) → security (Quad, maritime, counter-terror) → soft power (vaccine diplomacy, ISA, diaspora, Indo-Pacific)
Counter-view
_ features look like a qualitative break, but rest on continuity → autonomy now pursued through engagement, not distance (new means, old value)
Conclusion routes
nelusion routes R1 many new instruments, one constant thread — strategic autonomy R2 move from reactive non-alignment to proactive multi- alignment reads as evolution, not rupture — old principles carried into new priorities
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
