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India today looms large globally, where it hardly loomed at all twenty years ago. It is likely to be a key global actor throughout the twenty-first century and could well emerge soon as one of the top five global powers.Does the Elephant Dance? seeks to survey the main features of Indian foreign policy. It identifies elements of Indian history relevant to the topic; examines the role therein of domestic politics and internal and
external security challenges, and of domestic and international economic factors; and in successive chapters delves into the specifics of India's policy within its South Asian neighbourhood, and with respect to
China, the USA, West Asia (the Middle East), East Asia, Europe and Russia, and multilateral diplomacy. It also touches on Indian ties to Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. India's "soft power", the role of migration in its policy, and other cross-cutting issues are analyzed, as is the role and approach of several categories of foreign policy actors in India. Substantive conclusions close out the volume, and touch, inter alia, on policies India may want or need to change in its quest
for international stature.
India today looms large globally, where it hardly loomed at all twenty years ago. It is likely to be a key global actor throughout the twenty-first century and could well emerge soon as one of the top five global powers.Does the Elephant Dance? seeks to survey the main features of Indian foreign policy. It identifies elements of Indian history relevant to the topic; examines the role therein of domestic politics and internal and
external security challenges, and of domestic and international economic factors; and in successive chapters delves into the specifics of India's policy within its South Asian neighbourhood, and with respect to
China, the USA, West Asia (the Middle East), East Asia, Europe and Russia, and multilateral diplomacy. It also touches on Indian ties to Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. India's "soft power", the role of migration in its policy, and other cross-cutting issues are analyzed, as is the role and approach of several categories of foreign policy actors in India. Substantive conclusions close out the volume, and touch, inter alia, on policies India may want or need to change in its quest
for international stature.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Foreword
1: Introduction
2: History: A Vital Foundation of India's International
Relations
3: India's Contemporary Security Challenges: More Internal than
External?
4: India's Economy: Its Global Calling Card
5: India and its Neighbours
6: The Sino-Indian Relationship: Can Two Tigers Share a
Mountain?
7: India-USA Relations: The Shock of the New
8: India's West Asia Policy: Delicate Manoeuvres
9: India's East and South-East Asia Policy: Catching Up
10: India's Relations with Europe and Russia: Fading Glory?
11: The Evolution of Indian Multilateralism: From High Ground to
High Table
12: Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
David M. Malone was appointed as President of the International
Development Research Centre (IDRC) in 2008. Prior to that, Mr.
Malone served as Canada's High Commissioner to India and
non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal. He has also served as
a Canadian Ambassador at the United Nations. He has published
extensively on peace and security issues, in book form and in
journals. He has taught at Columbia University and the University
of Toronto. He currently
serves as Adjunct Professor at the New York University School of
Law and is a Senior Fellow of Massey College in the University of
Toronto. His most recent book is The Law and Practice of the
United
Nations (OUP, 2008). Previously, he wrote The International
Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council (OUP,
2006). With two co-editors, he is currently completing a volume on
the contemporary governance crisis in Nepal.
[David M. Malone] has produced a copiously annotated book that is
so beautifully organised and written that his scholarship wears
lightly and never impinges upon the story he tells.
*Alan Mackie, Asian Affairs*
A much needed corrective to the sometimes single-minded focus of
Indian foreign policy scholars on the Security Council.
*Nabarun Roy, International Affairs 87: 6*
A broad-ranging but substantive survey of the Indian foreign policy
horizon ... brings an illuminating perspective to the conduct of
India's international relations ... Overall, the volume is one of
the best overviews of Indian foreign policy in recent years.
*David J. Karl, Asia Policy*
Malone gives a detailed insight into India's domestic scene, with
an amazingly accurate description of all the principle political
parties and players. His scholarship is manifest in the 100-odd
pages of footnotes and bibliography, and he quotes extensively from
the writings of Indian analysts as well as from personal
conversations with unnamed individuals ... The book's comprehensive
approach makes it a must for all those interested in India and
South Asia.
*Chinmaya Gharekhan, India Today*
Does the Elephant Dance? stands out amongst books on this subject
... The book is lucidly and engagingly written, and is as
accessible to the lay reader as to the specialist ... the best book
yet on recent Indian foreign policy. It will be required reading
for anyone wanting to make sense of the great transitions underway
in India's engagement with the world.
*Srinath Raghavan, The Times of India*
...Malone's Does the Elephant Dance? is a solidly researched, lucid
analysis of Indian foreign policy. It immerses itself in Indian
history to seek the wellsprings of continuity in India's relations
with the world, and studies the role of domestic politics and
internal compulsions, as well as the impact of external security
challenges. Unlike scholars more interested in geopolitics, Malone
has a fine appreciation of the significance of domestic and
international economic factors in foreign policy-making. ..The text
is a goldmine for scholars.
*Shashi Tharoor, Outlook*
The author, until recently Canada's High Commissioner to Delhi, has
a breadth of knowledge and makes his case well.
*The Economist*
an impressive book ... a solidly researched, lucid analysis of
Indian foreign policy ... [Malone's] book deserves to be read
thoroughly and consulted frequently by anyone interested in our
external relations.
*Shashi Tharoor, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
India*
A wonderfully illuminating book on India's relations with the world
informed both by remarkable expertise on diplomacy and foreign
relations and by carefully acquired intimate knowledge of a very
complex country. The book will enlighten not only Indians involved
in public discussion and policymaking but also people across the
world interested in an ancient land undergoing extraordinarily
rapid transformation.
*Amartya Sen*
With the analytical mind of a scholar and the perceptive eye of an
experienced diplomat, David Malone ranges across history,
geography, economics and strategy to provide a treatment of Indian
foreign policy which is both lucid and profound.
*Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution in
Washington, DC, former Deputy Secretary of State of the USA, and
author of Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb*
David Malone has written an impressively thorough and deeply
insightful analysis of how a previously inward-looking India is now
reaching out to the world. Comprehensive in scope, examining major
themes and regions, it shrewdly brings history and economics to
bear on our understanding of foreign policy. The work of a hugely
skilled scholar-practitioner, this book is mandatory reading for
diplomats and journalists, and for teachers and students in the
social sciences. I would strongly recommend it to ambitious
politicians and concerned citizens as well.
*Ramachandra Guha, Historian, Author of India After Gandhi*
By daring to walk through Delhi's Tower of Babel, David Malone has
produced a rewarding work on the sources and conduct of India's
contemporary international relations. The capacity to differentiate
between the 'signal' and the 'noise' in Delhi's rambunctious
discourse and a deep empathy for India's aspirations allow Malone
to excavate the obscure riches of India's new regional and global
engagement. Undeterred by Delhi' self-referential discourse and
unfettered from the Western preconceptions, Malone offers the most
insightful guide yet to judging what kind of a power a rising India
might become.
*C. Raja Mohan, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and
Contributing Editor of The Indian Express, New Delhi, author of
Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India's New Foreign Policy*
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