العامل الإسرائيلي في العلاقات الاستراتيجية المتطورة بين الهند والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية

Sadia Khanum,Muhammad Moi̇z

doi:10.47932/ortetut.720705

Abstract

Indo-Israel strategic ties have been growing at a great pace in the last few decades and this growth is stimulating interests and concerns among foreign policymakers as well as in academia. India under Nehru maintained a very strict stance vis-à-vis Israel’s Palestine policy. Being a part of and the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, Nehru was critical of injustice done to Palestinians and the US role in consolidating the state of Israel. India’s growing intimacy with Israel, starting from the 1990s, is seen as a major divergence from the policy set by the country’s founding fathers. Close diplomatic and defense ties somehow exhibit the geostrategic needs of both the countries as well as the requirement of time where systematic changes have taken place in the post-Cold War period. The disintegration of the Soviet Union left no option for India but to pursue a more pragmatic policy towards the United States, the new hegemon, and its allies. The Jewish lobby in the US Congress was of great support to put forward India’s agendas and to counter opponents. India reciprocated for that goodwill diplomacy by strengthening its ties with Israel. Post-Cold War growth of Indo-US strategic relations has many regional and global dimensions and vested interests. These interests are better served in geostrategic collaboration with Israel or making a mutual interest-based informal alliance (Indo-US-Israel triangle for balancing the threat in Asia) between three countries. The cordial ties between Israel and the US facilitate India forwarding its regional and global agendas from the very platform of friendship. Therefore, the research problem at hand is to dissect and understand the trilateral bond based on its balancing the threat in the region and how it is the source of convergence for all three of them. In brief, this paper is an attempt to understand the very basis of growing Indo-Israel relations and the role that this strategic partnership plays in facilitating the cordial ties between the US and India in the post-Cold War era.

Highlights

India’s foreign policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s went through many changes
This paper is an attempt to understand the very basis of growing Indo-Israel relations and the role that this strategic partnership plays in facilitating the cordial ties between the US and India in the post-Cold War era
In the post-Cold War period, India aligned with the US and its allies to counter balance the threat of rising China in the region and most recently when the Chinese army killed dozens of Indian soldiers in a standoff at the Ladakh border, American officials hinted that the US is “not going to stand by and let China or anyone else take the reins in terms of being the most powerful, dominant force, whether it’s in that region or over here,” which indicated US strategic partnership with India against China

Summary

Introduction

India’s foreign policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s went through many changes. These changes diverted India away from the Nehruvian ideals of advocating the rights of people under colonial (imperialist) agendas or being deprived of their free will to decide their future (Nehru’s Panchsheel; the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence, a treaty signed between Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1952 in order to work together for peace in the region on the backdrop of decolonization of the subcontinent and later these five principles were adopted by the United Nation’s General Assembly in 1957). Global happenings forced Indian policy makers to adjust with the prevailing international system and adopt changes in the context of the end of Cold War and the triumph of an open market capitalist economy. In the post-Cold War period, India aligned with the US and its allies to counter balance the threat of rising China in the region and most recently when the Chinese army killed dozens of Indian soldiers in a standoff at the Ladakh border, American officials hinted that the US is “not going to stand by and let China or anyone else take the reins in terms of being the most powerful, dominant force, whether it’s in that region or over here,” which indicated US strategic partnership with India against China.32 In this scenario, Kenneth Waltz’s described purpose of alliance making could be applicable on strategic partnership, since both serve the goal of balancing the growing influence or power of an adversary and ensure security from any kind of threat.. Kenneth Waltz’s described purpose of alliance making could be applicable on strategic partnership, since both serve the goal of balancing the growing influence or power of an adversary and ensure security from any kind of threat.33 In this theoretical background, post-Cold War India-US-Israel growing ties in defense and geostrategic spheres could be discussed in two perspectives: 1.

The Strategic Roots of Cooperation

Conclusion