An Assessment of India’s Foreign Policy Under PM Modi

Abstract

India’s foreign policy has evolved amidst numerous constraints and experienced many ups and downs in the process of its fruition to the present stage. In the years following the independence, India had to steer its foreign policy against the high wave of the Cold war. India’s bid to retain its independence in foreign affairs had often led India to compromise its strategic interests against Pakistan and China. Dynamics of the Cold war severed India’s relations with the West and reduced its foreign policy more or less to a ‘peace diplomacy’. The inbuilt idealism of India’s foreign policy was often perceived by the West as weakness. Nonetheless, India’s foreign policy has come a long way since the time of the Cold war and has been transformed to a self-reliant and dynamic policy to deal with the existing and forthcoming challenges of the international politics. However, the response of India’s foreign policy has been most perceptible, decisive and coercive during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This paper attempts to outline the shift in the style of functioning of India’s Foreign Policy under PM Modi while analyzing the secondary sources only. Keywords: Peace Diplomacy, Act East, SAARC, QUAD, Cold War, Kashmir, WTO