India's Diplomacy And Strategic Security In Post-Cold War Scenario

India is emerging as a power in the present global setting and its strategic status and international leverage have experienced an obvious escalation. At the end of the cold war, the shifting of global order exerted strong impacts on India's views of diplomacy and security. The major incidents including Soviet Union's demise, the Gulf War, US unilateral practice and mushrooming hotspots of conflict worldwide influenced India's perceptions of and response to the changing international relations, which, along with an imperative to engage new economy reform, spurred India to overhaul its foreign and security agendas. India's post-cold war foreign cum security strategies are characteristic of two essential elements: to reorient its relations with major powers and key neighbors; and to aspire to be a recognized global power by convincingly displaying the national strength. These two facets are believed to be closely interrelated and interdependent: the former highlights meaningful engagements with the United States, Russia, China, and Pakistan and activating strategic interaction with big powers in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia, Asia-Pacific and the Persian Gulf; and the latter emphasizes the acquirement of credible capabilities bolstered by high rate and sustainable growth, the amplification of role in the United Nations, the possession of reliable nuclear deterrents, and modernize military and defense. This is also reflected in pragmatic, flexible and sometimes hawkish dealings with the issues partaking to its national interests. Essentially, the readjusting of diplomatic/security agenda proves a brainchild of India's perception and rethink of the ground realities and its matrix of interest considerations, and also influenced by its strategic culture and the cold-war days experience. This well-designed agenda is aimed to maximize the national interests, exploit diplomatic and security gains, and ease its power-seeking passage.Of various factors for India's diplomatic and security options are primarily its relationships with global powers, especially with the US making core sense. Both New Delhi and Washington, from the estranged democracies to the engaged ones, have cultivated their ties in different areas with defense and security cooperation particularly impressive and have begun to evolve a tentative strategic partnership. India has offered to coordinate with the US on several major global and regional issues including the NMD programme in order to serve the consolidation of the nexus. US approach to South Asia, as presumably believed, smacks of wooing India to counterbalance an ascending China, whereas India thinks it most probably spoiling for its own long term interests by joining the coalition to contain Beijing despite the fact that Indo-US connection has predominated in its security formula. In the same vein, India has thought highly of cooperating substantially with Russia on a realistic basis.Despite visible and acclaimed improvement of Sino-Indian relations in the post-cold war climate there has seemed no tangible change in New Delhi's inclination to see China a major strategic rival or even a formidable threat, which tends to make the uncertainty of China-India relations a necessity. Thus how to address and mitigate the uneasiness caused by this unstable nature has created profound effects on the bilateral relations in specific as well as the larger security environment as a whole. On the regional front, the complicated chemistry between India and Pakistan has persistently dominated New Delhi's diplomatic and security performances. The perennial Kashmir imbroglio has continued to contribute to the tightness of the regional situation and made it extremely difficult to achieve a productive compromise between the two neighbors. On the other hand, however, both the burgeoning nuclear deterrents in South Asia and US tangible involvement of the regional occurrences in the wake of the 9/11 attacks prove greatly helpful for lessening the likelihood of an all-out war between New Delhi and Islamabad, which absolutely offers a positive promise to ease the tension in the subcontinent. The peace process in South Asia since the early 2004 becomes, to some extent, rightly regarded as a significant outcome of that strategic reality. Furthermore, to tackle the challenges posed by terrorism, WMD proliferation and energy security has been of increasing importance in India's post-cold war diplomatic and security measures.Equally, India has advocated a multi-polar global arrangement, searching for itself an enviable position within it and pursuing a greater role globally. This endeavor is articulately expressed by its determined seeking of a nuclear status; resolve to obtain the permanent membership in UNSC; vigorous participation in addressing global and regional concerns; and embracement, albeit guardedly, of growing economic integration. These initiatives have helped intensify constructive interaction and coordination at both global and regional levels. Added to this, India has explored fruitful relationships with its small neighbors in South Asia and expected a breakthrough in its neighborhood diplomacy; promoted the "look east" policy towards the ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region at large; and guaranteed its privileges in the Indian Ocean. And to meet its needs for security, overseas energy supplies and economic boost, India has interactively acceded to regional and multi-sided political, economic and security institutions, and tapped its strategic space in Central Asia and Asia-Pacific. All dimensions of the strategy indicate that India has enormously benefited from a pragmatic, elastic, directional and strength-based foreign/security policy and, in turn, from a paradigm-shifting international order.