India US Relations Research Articles

Limits of India–US Relations: Balancing Through Strategic Autonomy and Multi-alignment

The India–US relationship has often been described as a defining partnership. But the nature of the friendship in actuality is yet to assume depth. Despite convergences at multiple levels, it falls short of a true strategic partnership or deep friendship. The India–US relationship is neither a trusted nor an assured economic or security partnership. It is often tested by the vagaries of real-time issues, especially involving other great powers. That is why, despite signing the civilian nuclear deal, foundational agreements, being members of the QUAD and Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, and with the common objective of containing the rise of China, they are unable to work closely together on myriad bilateral, international and regional issues. There are differences over matters of primary interests and the type of partnership that each wants to establish. The United States was insensitive to Indian concerns in its abrupt drawdown from Afghanistan in 2021, sub-continental security threats emanating from the China–Pakistan axis and its continued military support to Pakistan. India’s neutral stand (read in the United States as being pro-Russian) in the Ukraine crisis marked by its abstention from voting against Russia in the UN and purchase of Russian oil despite strong objections from the US-led Western camp are cases in point. We argue that India’s US policy is a case of limited balancing dictated by compulsions and lacks depth. For rising India, a continued desire for strategic autonomy and multi-alignment—the post-non-alignment foreign policy principles—guides its foreign policy orientation. For Washington, a deeper relationship would imply India abandoning its visions of strategic autonomy and joining more formally in Washington’s orbit. These core national objectives of the two countries limit the level of partnership they can forge.

India-US Relations: During the period of Narasimha Rao Government

India-US Relations: During the period of Narasimha Rao Government

Agreements that Played an Important Role in Strengthening India-US Relations

This research paper analyzes the pivotal agreements that have significantly contributed to strengthening India-US relations. By examining diplomatic, economic, strategic, and technological collaborations between the two nations, this paper aims to provide comprehensive insights into the evolution and impact of these agreements on the bilateral relationship.

Demystifying Indo-US Natural and Strategic Partnership

India–US relations have witnessed diverse trends ranging from estrangement to engagement followed by strategic partnership. They have signed various agreements, such as DPA, CND, LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA, to institutionalize their strategic partnership. However, real-time challenges have continuously shaped the trajectory of strategic alignment as their national interests occasionally converged and often diverged. Their notions of world order sharply contrast. New Delhi stands for a multi-polar world order, whereas Washington advocates uni-polar world order. The US–Pakistan alliance partnership has further proved an impediment to the Indo–US strategic partnership. Hence, much claimed natural partnership has not been able to make much headway as their national interests diverge on core issues such as trade, immigration, joint and co-production, and world order. The mainstream literature advocates that these are the teething problems of evolving strategic partnerships, but the in-depth analysis indicates that issues confronting their relationship are structural and deep-rooted. Realism, neorealism and social constructivism prove appropriate tools to grasp the dynamic of Indo–US natural and strategic partnerships by locating them in the global, Asian and regional power structure.

Navigating the Af-Pak arena: India-US relations under the Trump administration

ABSTRACT The gradual elevation of India-US relations over the past few decades highlights a significant convergence of interests, a similarity in dominant political discourse and a converging geopolitical environment that has aided this elevation. This article explores engagements between India and the US within the Af-Pak arena, reflected in policy discourse and public pronouncements in both countries. It does so through a critical discourse analysis and examination of personal, national interest, and broader structural calculations that have driven Indian and American policy engagement reflected in their policy positions with regards to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Introduction

ABSTRACT Did India-US relations strengthen under Trump? Was there greater political, diplomatic, strategic, and defense cooperation between the two largest democracies in the world under the Trump administration? Was there increasing convergence or divergence at the bilateral and multilateral level, in relations with third countries, and in the realm of regional security and geopolitics? This special issue answers these questions and highlights that answers are not straight forward, but more nuanced than one might expect. Contributors reach the following conclusions. First, bilateral ties received a significant boost in the Modi-Trump era because of the camaraderie between the two leaders and shared apprehensions about China’s rise and aggressive foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific. Second, despite the burgeoning partnership between the two countries, there were areas of both convergence and divergence between the two countries under the Trump administration regarding democracy, trade and commerce, the UN, multilateralism and global governance, and climate change, relations with third countries including China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, and in the realm of regional security and geopolitics in the context of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Third, the Trump administration, especially President Trump, played a significant role in mitigating or exacerbating the convergence/divergence in almost all the issue areas.

Dynamics of India-USRelations during UPA Government's Tenure (2004-2014)

India and the United States, as the world's two largest democracies, share common values and interests that form the basis of their relationship. However, their historical journey towards a closer partnership has been shaped by a range of factors, including political considerations, strategic interests, economic opportunities, and shared challenges on the global stage.The present article sheds light on dynamics in India –US relations during the two tenures of the UPA government (2004-2009 & 2009-2014). As it is a dynamic subject and a matter of contemporary relevance and importance, India-US relations is still attracting the attention of scholars around the world. Statesmen on both sides have bemoaned this period as ‘the lost half century’ or ‘the fifty wasted years’ during which the world’s largest democracy and the world’s oldest democracy failed to cooperate consistently across a range of issues.The UPA governments' tenure marked a turning point in the relationship, characterized by strategic initiatives such as the New Framework for the US-India Defence Relationshipand US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement,which paved the way for enhanced defence, nuclear energy, economic and tradecooperation. It provided a comprehensive roadmap for engagement in areas such as joint exercises, defence trade, and research and development collaboration.

India-US Relations: In the context of the 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement

Before going through the 40-page document of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement 2007, it is necessary to note that there is no such element in this agreement against India, through which the supply of fuel to the Tarapur reactor built with American cooperation should be stopped. Let the incident be repeated. Second, India should under no circumstances relinquish its right to conduct nuclear tests in future from the point of view of strategic security. Ultimately, India should not expose its nuclear weapons to international surveillance. Indian citizens and scientists were looking at this nuclear deal on the basis of these three things and they realized that it would not affect India's domestic nuclear program.

India-Us Relations: from the Past to the Future

The paper considers the evolution of Indian-American relations from the 1940s to the present. The regional dimension in Indian-American relations is characterized by extreme inconsistency. Thus, New Delhi, the historical leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, despite the change in world order due to the fall of the Iron Curtain, continues to abandon allied relations and, as a rule, pursues a balanced policy in all regions barring its own — South Asia. Being primarily a South Asian regional power, India uncompromisingly defends its national interests in conflicts with Pakistan and does not allow the Pakistan-US dialogue to intervene in the solution of the Kashmir problem. The United States, in turn, reneges its historic course of unequivocal support for Islamabad and multilateral dispute settlement mechanisms in favor of a balanced approach, namely favoring bilateral negotiations between the conflicting parties. An important element of changes in South Asia’s importance is the emergence of nuclear weapons in the region. The nuclear factor significantly complicates the already difficult relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad and reinforces concerns of the globe and Washington in particular. The terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan adds instability to the already conflicting relations between the countries of the region. The withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan does not contribute to improving the security architecture as well. In general, South Asia, both historically and today, is not high on the American foreign policy agenda. Accordingly, India and Pakistan are more important for the United States in the broader context of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (India) and the Greater Middle East (Pakistan), or as separate actors in international relations that contribute to solving problems in a bilateral format rather than South Asian countries per se.

India and the Civil Nuclear Liability Regime

The successful winding up of the Indo–US civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008 had generated a lot of sanguinity of thriving nuclear trade and increased investment surge in India’s civil nuclear power sector. However, the differences over the Indian nuclear liability regime because of its non-conformity with the international liability regime have marred those expectations. In the stated background, the article in its first part traces the chronological development of the international nuclear liability regimes, and, in second part, the Indian liability law and its inconsistencies are dealt with emphasis on shifting tenor of India–US relations vis-à-vis the law.

Parameters – Full Issue – Autumn 2018

FEATURES: Challenges for Civil-Military Relations: "Policy Revolt: Army Opposition to the Korea Withdrawal Plan On Alliances and Coalitions" by Eric B. Setzekorn. "The Walter Reed Scandal and the All-Volunteer Force" by Richard G. Malish. On Alliances and Coalitions: "Fighting and Learning in the Great War" by Kelly A. Greico. "India-US Relations" by Vinay Kaura. "Toward a Whole-of-Government Approach" by Paul E. Vera Delzo. On Clausewitz: "Reclaiming Clausewitz's Theory of Victory" by Richard M. Milburn. "A Clausewitzian Response to 'Hyperwarfare'" by Brandon T. Euhus. Plus, Military History, Irregular Warfare, Security Studies, and Book Reviews!

The evolution of India-US relations and India´s grand strategy

espanolLa evolucion de las relaciones entre India y Estados Unidos y la gran estrategia de la India en las ultimas dos decadas son el resultado del cambio de los equilibrios de poder y de una reafirmacion del realismo estructural. El final de la guerra fria y el surgimiento de la unipolaridad abrieron el camino para que la superpotencia estadounidense se involucrase con la India y para que Nueva Delhi se alejarse de Moscu e iniciase una asociacion con Washington manteniendo una gran estrategia autonoma propia de un poder ascendente. En las ultimas dos decadas, el ascenso de China como gran potencia en Asia ha impulsado esta asociacion. La politica domestica tambien ha desempenado un papel en la creciente asociacion, con el crecimiento del capitalismo y el nacionalismo y el ascenso del Partido Bharatiya Janata (BJP) como una fuerza politica dominante. Estos factores han impulsado el interes por la asociacion con Estados Unidos para contrarrestar a China, sus crecientes alianzas en Asia meridional y el espectro de un cerco. EnglishThe evolution of India-US relations and India’s grand strategy over the past two decades is a result of changing power balances and an affirmation of structural realism. The end of the Cold War and the emergence of unipolarity opened the way for the US superpower to engage with India and for New Delhi to move away from Moscow and towards a partnership with Washington while maintaining an autonomous grand strategy of a rising power. In the past two decades, China’s rise as a major power in Asia has introduced propelled the partnership. Domestic politics also has played a role in the growing partnership, with the growth of capitalism and nationalism and the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a dominant political force. These factors have driven interest in the US partnership to counter China and its growing partnerships in South Asia and the spectre of encirclement.

India-US Relations: From Distant Partners to an Alliance

India-US Relations: From Distant Partners to an Alliance

Optimising India–US Maritime-Strategic Convergence

The current trajectory of India–US relations is encouraging, but needs to be sustained by optimising their maritime-strategic convergence. In the maritime-configured Indo-Pacific region, the two countries could undertake substantive ‘transactions’ in the domain of geopolitics and military-strategic cooperation. In this context, the article examines four key aspects: the ‘restrictiveness’ and ‘permissiveness’ of India’s cornerstone policy of ‘strategic autonomy’; the emerging imperative for their navies to go beyond ‘combined exercises’ to ‘combined operations’; their joint efforts to uphold established norms and tenets of international law, while also recognising their nuanced differences on the interpretation of the law; and to progress defence trade and defence-industry cooperation. The article concludes with specific recommendations on each of these key aspects.

India–US relations acquire new momentum

Having previously been characterised by mutual mistrust and tension, relations between India and the United States began to improve at the turn of this century. Bilateral trade has increased sharply over the last decade, but there is considerable scope and widespread political support in both countries for expansion.

A New “Special Relationship”?: Power Transitions, Ontological Security, and India-US Relations

This article argues that power transitions generate not just physical security concerns for states, but also “ontological” insecurity, as established identities, hierarchies, and relationships are revised and challenged. It is suggested that seeking out “special relationships” with others is one way in which states seek to mitigate this uncertainty. Through an analysis of the discourse on the “rise of India” from policymakers and commentators in the United States, it is shown that recent US representations of India seek to consolidate a particular US identity, based on the notion of American exceptionalism, and attempt to construct a new “special relationship” with India in order to ameliorate the challenge posed by the rise of China to a US-dominated world order and the assumption of the universality of US ideas and institutions. However, while India–US relations have improved, the relationship continues to be hampered by their differing world-views and self-perceptions, which, as in the past, undermine each other's sense of ontological security.

Indo-US Maritime Cooperation: Challenges and Prospects

In 1991, after the denouement of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar world, major changes took place at the international level. In the wake of these changes, India and the US had to re-adjust their policies and relations that led to cordial India-US relations. Maritime relations were not immune to these winds of change. In the maritime domain, India has adopted a different attitude towards the US presence in the Indian Ocean as compared to the Cold War period. The United States has also recognized India as a major security provider in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as the Indian Navy is the largest force in the region. Through the maritime cooperation, both nations can provide the secure and stable environment in the IOR, which is the stated aim of both the countries. In this regard, this paper tries to analyse India-US maritime relations during the Cold War era as well as the post-Cold War period.

Charting a Maritime Security Cooperation Mechanism in the Indian Ocean: Sharing Responsibilities among Littoral States and User States

The main objective of this article is to highlight the challenge of maritime security in the region geographically bounded by the Indian Ocean. It studies the current status of maritime security in the region from both the traditional and non-traditional points of view. From the traditional security perspective, it examines the strategic interests of the major Indian Ocean players—the China–India competition and India–US relations in particular—in addition to the existing maritime disputes among the littoral states. The non-traditional security angle includes sea lines of communication (SLOCs), piracy, maritime terrorism, natural disasters and other crimes with a maritime dimension. There is a convergence of interests between both the littoral and user states for charting a maritime security cooperation mechanism which envisages a sharing of responsibilities in order to achieve the short-term and long-term maritime security of the Indian Ocean.

India-US Relations

[The] great problem of the near future will be American imperialism even more than British imperialism.1India is today embarked on a journey inspired by many dreams. We welcome having America by our side. There is much we can accomplish together.2These two statements, uttered almost 60 years apart, mark a contemporary transformation in relations between India and the United States of America. For most ofthe last six decades, the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy failed to understand each other's character and compulsions. That a fundamental shift has occurred during the past decade is clear to all. Our article explores this shift in terms of its motivation and timing, and seeks to locate its causes. The analysis rests on a combination of international, regional, and domestic factors that operated jointly to usher in the post-Cold War era of India-US relations.HISTORICAL OVERVIEWDuring its early years the Indian republic viewed the world through a newly forged prism of anti-imperialism. The Americans on the other hand viewed the world through the prism of anti- Communism. This thinking produced the maxim of John Foster Dulles: Those who are not with us are against us.3 Faced with an increasingly bipolar world, India adopted an idealistic yet functionally pragmatic philosophy of nonalignment as the cornerstone of its foreign policy. Amidst the atmosphere of the 1950s, the US viewed India's nonalignment as a cover for interests that diverged from its own. As the Cold War gained momentum, America's frustrations with Indian nonalignment mounted. In the absence of cooperation from India, and with a communist government in China, Pakistan became an essential element in the United States' containment of the Soviet Union in Asia. What began as an ideological gulf between India and the US developed into a strategic chasm.The Sino-Indian border war of 1962 compelled Nehru to seek assistance from the western powers. The American response was warm yet strategically motivated. It prevailed on Pakistan for an assurance that it would not invade Kashmir so that India could redeploy its northern troops towards the front with China. An American carrier - the Enterprise - was dispatched towards the Bay of Bengal. In 1965, when Pakistan contravened a written assurance from President Eisenhower to Nehru that U S -supplied weapons would not be used by Pakistan against India, Washington adopted a position of strict neutrality, alienating India and driving Pakistan towards China for military sustenance. The expanding Sino- Pakistani relationship did not, however, prompt a change in India-US relations. In 1971, the east Pakistan crisis coincided with American attempts at building a rapprochement with China, which was facilitated largely by Pakistan. Faced with America's tacit support for Pakistan, India officially turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. As war broke out between India and Pakistan, the USS Enterprise was once again dispatched to the Bay of Bengal, but this time with the opposite intent.The US received a major jolt in 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear weapon test at Pokhran. It came to light that India had diverted nuclear materials imported for civilian purposes, much of it from the US, in order to initiate a weapons program. Although India assured the world that its test was a peaceful one, the event was a blow not just to American influence in south Asia but also to the emerging global nonproliferation regime in general. In the 1980s, the US-India relationship was obscured by the indirect superpower conflict in nearby Afghanistan and India's own political and economic problems. Once again, India and the United States found themselves on opposing sides of a vital global conflict. In the mid1980s, concern about its regional autonomy and capacity to resist American global ambitions was one of the motivating factors behind India's involvement in the emerging domestic conflict in Sri Lanka (the other was India's large Tamil population, particularly in the state of Tamil Nadu). …

Emerging Trends in India–US Relations

Of late the relationship with the United States has become India’s most important bilateral relationship. Bilateral trade may have remained small due to India’s own huge domestic market in other respects economic relations are growing fast. Bilateral investment ties have grown substantially. Institutional mechanisms involving the private sectors in both countries are active in promoting cooperation in high technology, defence procurement and production, agriculture, health and energy. Much more, however, needs to be done to expedite procedures for clearances for high-tech exports from the US. India, in turn, is conscious of the fact that it needs to take a number of steps to take if it is to foster cooperation with the US in higher education. It also needs to be recognised that on issues like the Doha Round and Climate Change, much work needs to be done to bridge differences, though one can derive satisfaction from the fact that it was the agreement reached between President Obama and leaders of the ‘BASIC’ grouping that prevented a total breakdown of the Copenhagen Summit. This agreement largely reflected the understanding reached when Dr. Manmohan Singh visited Washington.