Among the most contested questions in Indian foreign policy today are those related to the extent and type of power that India should use to project itself internationally. Should India rely on military, economic or ideational power? How should Indian policymakers make trade-offs between military, economic and normative objectives? What mechanisms does India prefer for global leadership?

These are some of the questions that are addressed in this Policy Brief based on a series of seminars held in Delhi during January 2010. The seminars are part of the Worldviews of Aspiring Powers project, undertaken by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. The Brief outlines India’s foreign policy debates, emphasizes the limits of those debates, and begins to explain why the debates are limited. This work will lead to major conference in Washington DC in 2011, and the subsequent publication of a book.

Professor Rajesh Rajagopalan of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Professor Deepa Ollapally of The George Washington University presented papers on hard power and economic policymaking respectively, followed by commentary from discussants and the audience. The seminars were attended by a number of prominent academics, analysts, government and military officials, and journalists.

Read the rest of the Policy Brief here

By Nikola Mirilovic, Research Associate, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, The George Washington University