Understanding the emerging India-US strategic partnership.

Abstract

The ending of the Cold War resulted in the formation of a new international system dominated by a sole superpower, with formations of new alliances and changes in old relationships among countries, as well as the rise of new powers like China and India. My dissertation paper attempts to establish a causal relationship between India's experiences during the Cold War era, chiefly with the US and China, and the new foreign policy it has to adopt in the post-Cold War international system. My paper analyses the changing dynamics of India's relationship with the US vis-a-vis its relationship with China, within the context of the shift from a bipolar world to a unipolar one and how these factors led to the change in India's foreign policy from one that was based on non-alignment during the Cold War, to an increasing realist-based policy today. In ending, the question of whether the Indo-American strategic partnership will turn into a formal alliance is also addressed.