In Vishwa Shastra, Dhruva Jaishankar tells “the story of an India that witnessed complex discussions about its place in international affairs, made tough decisions, endured daunting challenges, and played a more active global role than is not often understood.” The book effortlessly intertwines history and strategy to offer a bird’ s-eye view of India’s external relations, replete with fresh insights that will be valuable to both the curious citizen and seasoned policymaker.
To gauge the importance of a realist, interest-based approach to Indian foreign policy, the historical events that shaped India’s present strategic calculus and the variables that may prove vital to ensure the country’s global ascent, Dr Sidharth Raimedhi interviews Jaishankar:
This book is clearly a realist’s take on Indian Foreign Policy. How did you come to adopt realism as your lens to look at our external relations?
I think there are three ways I came to see realism in Indian foreign policy over time.
First, my grandfather [K. Subrahmanyam], who led the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, was an arch-realist. He would warn against a normative approach that could constrain India’s options.
Second, my education exposed me to various IR theories: realist, liberal, and constructivist, and I came across many false debates. Other explanations exist, but when crises hit, like COVID-19, realism proves to have the most explanatory power. I think of it like a step pyramid, with realism as the foundation and other theories like liberalism and constructivism building upon them, explaining certain scenarios.
Third, my study of history showed me that even at the height of Non-Alignment, India’s decisions were driven by territorial integrity and national development—they were interest-based, not ideological. The debates weren’t theoretical but about the best path to advance Indian objectives.
How does India’s realist foreign policy align with its unique approach to international relations, particularly Nehru’s early emphasis on norms over force in dealing with China? Additionally, did the nonviolent ethos of India’s independence movement shape its strategic thinking and approach to power and contestation?
