Does the Elephant Dance?: Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy

India today looms large globally, where it hardly loomed at all twenty years ago. It is likely to be a key global actor throughout the twenty-first century and could well emerge soon as one of the top five global powers.Does the Elephant Dance? seeks to survey the main features of Indian foreign policy. It identifies elements of Indian history relevant to the topic; examines the role therein of domestic politics and internal and external security challenges, and of domestic and international economic factors; and in successive chapters delves into the specifics of India's policy within its South Asian neighbourhood, and with respect to China, the USA, West Asia (the Middle East), East Asia, Europe and Russia, and multilateral diplomacy. It also touches on Indian ties to Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. India's "soft power", the role of migration in its policy, and other cross-cutting issues are analyzed, as is the role and approach of several categories of foreign policy actors in India. Substantive conclusions close out the volume, and touch, inter alia, on the absence of an organizing framework for Indian foreign policy.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Foreword 1: Introduction 2: History: A Vital Foundation of India's International Relations 3: India's Contemporary Security Challenges: More Internal than External? 4: India's Economy: Its Global Calling Card 5: India and its Neighbours 6: The Sino-Indian Relationship: Can Two Tigers Share a Mountain? 7: India-USA Relations: The Shock of the New 8: India's West Asia Policy: Delicate Manoeuvres 9: India's East and South-East Asia Policy: Catching Up 10: India's Relations with Europe and Russia: Fading Glory? 11: The Evolution of Indian Multilateralism: From High Ground to High Table 12: Conclusions Bibliography Index

About the Author :
David M. Malone was appointed as President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in 2008. Prior to that, Mr. Malone served as Canada's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal. He has also served as a Canadian Ambassador at the United Nations. He has published extensively on peace and security issues, in book form and in journals. He has taught at Columbia University and the University of Toronto. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor at the New York University School of Law and is a Senior Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto. His most recent book is The Law and Practice of the United Nations (OUP, 2008). Previously, he wrote The International Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council (OUP, 2006). With two co-editors, he is currently completing a volume on the contemporary governance crisis in Nepal.

Review :
`Review from previous edition A much needed corrective to the sometimes single-minded focus of Indian foreign policy scholars on the Security Council.' International Affairs `A broad-ranging but substantive survey of the Indian foreign policy horizon ... brings an illuminating perspective to the conduct of India's international relations ... Overall, the volume is one of the best overviews of Indian foreign policy in recent years.' Asia Policy `The author, until recently Canada's High Commissioner to Delhi, has a breadth of knowledge and makes his case well.' The Economist