India as a Global Power: The Strategic Culture Problems

Abstract

The article reviews India’s contested role of a great power in global politics. Although showing tangible results across all the aspects pertaining to the great power status, in international relations India is still largely underestimated and even overlooked. Politicians and scholars generally mention three main reasons behind that phenomenon: weak social and economic figures, the country’s relatively narrow global impact the absence of strategic culture. We argue that the latter is key, and that it is in the process of being remedied. In fact, India already has all the prerequisites for being recognised as a ‘great power’, since it has political, military, economic and cultural capabilities corresponding to the status. It is simply a matter of time and coordinated efforts of the government to formulate and implement a consistent foreign policy and economic strategy as well as a change in Indian elite’s strategic thinking which will enable untapping India’s existing potential and successfully meeting the objective of increasing its influence in global politics.

Assess the Proposition That India Will Become the Next Superpower

“…As Karnad (2018: 308) asserts, not only will this approach lead to India’s over-reliance on other nations for arms equipment, but it will also unnecessarily exhaust the country’s financial resources, which could be better utilised in other areas. India’s (perceived) lack of a well-elaborated security strategy, enshrined in a formal document like the US National Security Strategic Guidance, has also come under scrutiny by many in the strategic community (Hooda, 2019; Lunev and Shavlay, 2021; Tanham, 1992). As Lunev and Shavlay (2021: para.…”

“…India’s (perceived) lack of a well-elaborated security strategy, enshrined in a formal document like the US National Security Strategic Guidance, has also come under scrutiny by many in the strategic community (Hooda, 2019; Lunev and Shavlay, 2021; Tanham, 1992). As Lunev and Shavlay (2021: para. 1) argue, the dearth of a strategic culture in India has undermined the country’s role as a great power in global politics.…”

Estimation of Long Run Elasticity Parameters: An Analysis of India’s Organised Manufacturing Sector

“…The prospect of India emerging as a global superpower in the next decade has been a topic of intense debate (Mahapatra, 2018), with various studies pointing out numerous challenges like increasing Gross Domestic Production (GDP), value satisfaction, attracting more Foreign Direct Investment, increasing trade openness (Thomas, Kugler, & Tammen, 2021), lack of infrastructure, neglected primary to higher education, poor governance (Gey, Jobelius, & Tenbusch, 2007) weak social figures, fairly narrow global impact, dearth of strategic culture (Lunev & Shavlay, 2021) among many others. However, the key parameter almost all the studies have consistently alluded to is the double-edged sword of the growing population dividend of India, wherein it rightfully presents itself as both a challenge and an opportunity.…”