“India’s current foreign policy marks significant qualitative shifts from that of previous regimes”. Discuss.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 shift is real → but measured in ambition, pace, risk-appetite → not a break with core interests
Route 2 question tests rupture vs evolution → stake: qualitative shift genuine, yet grounded in continuity
change of self-image: balancing power → leading power → institutional markers (Quad, JAI trilateral, Act East, foundational agreements with US, SAGAR) → West Asia recalibration: Desai (Palestine no longer zero-sum) → Pant (old balancing dropped, UAE/Saudi ties) → firmer posture (Doklam, surgical + pre-emptive strikes) → new risk-appetite
continuities persist → Gandhian idealism, Gujral Doctrine with some neighbours, strategic autonomy, South–South cooperation
Route 1 Raja Mohan’s ‘Third Republic’ → new chapter after Nehruvian and Manmohan eras
Route 2 shifts genuine but build on strategic autonomy + civilisational identity → evolution, not rupture
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Indian Foreign Policy — 10 questions in the Vault.
- Critically analyze the different phases of India’s foreign policy since independence. How justified, do you think, is S. Jaishankar’s classification of the current phase as the...
- Would you concur with the view that of late, India’s foreign policy has been in a transition mode from Nehruvianism to Neoliberalism? Support your answer with...
- Explain the major features of India’s Foreign Policy in the 2ist century.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.