Strategic culture, identity and nuclear (in)security in Indian politics: Reflections from critical constructivist lenses

Abstract

Despite a rich volume of scholarship on strategic culture and security, scant attention has been paid in such studies to explore the representations of strategic cultures and insecurities in international politics. To address this lacuna, I follow in this article a critical constructivist reading of strategic culture and insecurity, with an eye at examining some of its conceptual, theoretical and analytical premises, which, despite incorporating how various aspects of strategic cultures define security choices, have shared the realist notion of anarchy as given in international politics. In doing so, I offer a critical constructivist analysis highlighting the socially constructed nature of and the mutually constitutive relation between the representations of India's strategic culture, statist identity, insecurities and nuclear policies. Drawing from my case study, I conclude by offering some suggestions along a critical constructivist line to conceptually, theoretically and analytically broaden the existing understandings of strategic cultures and states’ security practices.