Nation-Building and International Relations Theory

Abstract

The duality in Indian foreign policy is the result of an inflection away from the ‘norm’. This norm, for the purpose of conceptual clarity, is considered to be the structural realist model for international relations in which states are conceptualised as units without significant internal dynamic, following the imperatives of a universal rationality. Realism, by-and-large, provides a good guideline for understanding foreign policies of states. However, deviations from this norm can be found in many state-actors. Issues of identity, value or belief, and also institutional dynamics, domestic political calculations or individual and group emotions, frequently interfere with the rational decision-making processes. In India, the deviation is particularly noteworthy, both for its strength as well as its persistence over time. In order to make sense of the phenomenon in international relations theory, the concept of strategic culture is useful. It has the advantage of addressing irregularities and idiosyncrasies. As explained in the last chapter, strategic culture and the idealist inflection is insufficiently understood with direct reference to cultural building-blocs from Indian thought and tradition. It can be best understood as a product of the precarious and ambitious identity formation process of the new nation. What is needed, therefore, is a second theoretical framework within which the Indian national identity can be located in terms of stability. The assumption being that identity can generate political stability and that the less natural a common identity, the more precarious the nationbuilding process and hence the more urgent the need for ideological politics which will, in turn, impact on strategic culture and foreign policy.