Indian Foreign Policy and Cultural Values

As India rises to great power status in the emerging multipolar world order, what influence will its rich and ancient culture have on the country’s foreign policy? This book reveals that cultural values have greater explanatory power than previously thought and describes the nature of their influence. Excavating thousands of years of history, the monograph identifies enduring values that are relevant to contemporary foreign policy. It examines three critical areas of Indian foreign policy – nuclear policy, humanitarian intervention and relations with the Middle East. 

Major decisions were shaped by cultural values – sometimes at the expense of strategic interests. India’s choice to test nuclear weapons was not purely because of China or Pakistan: hierarchy also played a role. From a hierarchical worldview shaping Delhi’s approach to international law on arms control to pluralism facilitating simultaneous friendships with America and Iran, values thread their way throughout India’s foreign relations. Non-violence underpins Delhi’s soft power in both the West and the Middle East, while having spurred India’s opposition to Western intervention in Iraq.  Analyzing state behavior and interviewing diplomats, the book charts culture’s evolving influence from Rajiv Gandhi to Narendra Modi.

“With major global and regional power balances shifting dramatically, understanding what drives Indian foreign policy has never been more important. In this ambitious and thought-provoking study, the author identifies pluralism, tolerance, non-violence and hierarchy as cultural values that have long been most influential and remain so today. Enlivened by case studies of nuclear policy, humanitarian intervention and the Middle East, this book will appeal not only to international relations theorists but also practical policymakers.“ (Professor the Hon. Gareth Evans AC QC, Former Foreign Minister of Australia, Distinguished Honorary Professor, Australian National University and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group)

”Dr. Pethiyagoda’s fine volume, drawing on India’s rich history, diversity of cultures and rising geo-strategic importance, greatly enhances the fast-growing field of Indian foreign policy scholarship.” (Dr David M. Malone, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Rector, UN University, Author of Does the Elephant Dance: Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy and Former Canadian Ambassador to India)

“Departing from conventional studies of India’s foreign policy that assimilate it within normative visions of geopolitical calculation, Pethiyagoda excavates another set of concerns animating the country’s struggle to find its place in the international order. He shows that beneath the shifting strategies and short-term considerations of various Indian administrations, lie a number of long-term values and principles that sometimes resist India’s own strategic interests.” (Professor Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford and Author of The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence)