Summary
The Handbook of India’s International Relations gives an overview of India’s international relations, given the development of India as a major economic power in the world, and the growing interest in the impact of Asia on the international system in the future. This book is centred on India’s own description of its foreign policy as operating in ‘concentric circles’. This concentric circles concept is reflected in the following five sections:
Part 1: India. National ‘aspirations’ of a rising power; India’s ‘strategic culture’; India’s ‘power’ attributes; geopolitics for India; geoeconomics and energy for India.
Part 2: India’s ‘Immediate Neighbourhood’. India’s relations with Pakistan; with the Himalayan states; with Bangladesh; with Sri Lanka; with Afghanistan; India’s role in ‘regional’ integration.
Part 3: India’s ‘Extended Neighbourhood’. Looking east, South-East Asia and the ASEAN and East Asia and Australasia/Oceania; looking south, Indian Ocean; looking west, Iran and the Gulf and beyond the Gulf; looking west, Africa; looking north, Central Asia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Part 4: India’s Great Power Relations. India’s relations with Russia; with the European Union; with China; with the USA.
Part 5: India and Global Issues. India and its diaspora; India and international terrorism; India and the United Nations; India and nuclear weapons; India and climate change; India and outer space.