Author: J N Dixit
Publisher: Picus Books
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 527
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187285214
Description
In this volume, J N Dixit, India’s former foreign Secretary, paints a broad canvas, stretching across a time span of more than 50 years, with bold, powerful and authoritative strokes. The vivid colours, the intricate patterns and, above all, the overall comprehensive picture of India’s foreign policy reflect the deft touch of a maser artist who has created a modern-day masterpiece.
Beginning with a historical perspective, the author traces the origins of India’s foreign policy from 1947 onwards. He describes how the foundations were laid by Jawaharlal Nehru and built up later, by his successors, into the edifice that has now attained a lofty stature.
In the course of this illuminating narrative the author projects, in a chronological order, the various facets of India’s foreign policy as they evolved. He also describes their impact on both the national and international fronts. This volume puts into perspective significant epoch-making events which profoundly affected the orientation of India’s foreign policy priorities and also incisively analyses their ramifications and repercussions. For instance:
The Indo-Pak conflicts of 1947-48, 1965 and 1971.
The UN’s dubious stance vis-à-vis Kashmir.
The Indo-China war of 1962.
The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.
The disintegration of the gigantic Soviet Union.
The Kashmir imbroglio and Pakistan’s proxy war strategies.
The 1991 Gulf War.
The nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan in May 1998.
Apart from critically evaluating India’s relations with various countries of the world, especially the USA, Soviet Union (then Russia), China and Pakistan at various points of time, the book also examines international relations with reference to specific events.
This edition throws new light on the recent developments impinging significantly on India’s foreign policy strategies such as the Kargil war, the Vajpayee-Musharraf Agra summit and the occupation of Iraq by the US and the UK.
Presents, for the first time, an exhaustive, in-depth and analytical account of India’s foreign policy from its inception to date by a former Foreign Secretary, who had a ringside view of momentous events, as they unfolded.
Throws new light on how the USA offered nuclear weapons technology to India in the aftermath of the 1962 Indo-China conflict.
Divulges how Moscow tried to entice India to attack Pakistan when the Soviet Union had occupied Afghanistan.
Seeks to probe and ascertain, from a different angle, why Kashmir continues to be a festering problem.
Discloses how the highly industrialized countries, led by the USA, seek to impose discriminatory technological and economic regimes on the rest of the world.
Highlights the reasons for Pakistan’s Pavlovian responses to India’s nuclear tests of May 1998.
Focuses on the lessons for India’s foreign policy makers in the aftermath of the Kargil war, the Agra summit and the occupation of Iraq by the US-UK armed forces.
This volume is the product of the author’s wide and varied experience and his meticulous regard for detail and authenticity.
Contents
PREFACE
India’s Foreign Policy: Conceptual and Philosophical Origins
India Joins the Comity of Nations
India’s Emergence on the stage of International Diplomacy (1946-55)
End of Illusions; Beginnings of Realism (1956-64)
The Indo-Centric Phase: 1964-77
A Period of Domestic Uncertainty and Reactive Diplomacy: 1977-84
Adjusting to a World under Transition: 1985-91
On the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century: 1990-97
Kashmir: The Unresolved Problem
India and the United Nations
Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament
Economic Diplomacy
The Decision-Making Process: Political and Functional Aspects
India’s Foreign Policy: A Retrospective Evaluation
Tasks Ahead: Challenges for India’s Foreign Policy
China and South Asia: Post Pokhran II
India as a Nuclear Weapons Power
Kargil, Agra and Beyond
INDEX