The Contradictions Of Obama Administration Policy With India's National Identity

The viewpoints of past theories are insufficient in explaining India's nuclear policy and the Kashmir issue, to make up for this, this paper adopts the constructivist theory of national identity to rethink these two issues. The conclusion of this paper is that India's nuclear policy is changing as India changes its national identity, and finally established India as a nuclear power. On the Kashmir issue, India and Pakistan constructed a pair of mutually exclusive identity, and as India constructed itself as a civilization, their identity clash exacerbates.India hopes to join the nuclear club as a nuclear weapon country to interact with the international community, and distinguish it from those non-nuclear-weapon states. India, together with other members of the club, defends global peace and security. The construction of India as a civilization can distinguish it from small states, and at the same time, from other civilizations. India will participate in world affairs as a unique civilization.India's newly constructed identities determine its national interest, which in turn determines India's foreign policy:continues to refuse the discriminatory international nuclear proliferation mechanism, unless India accepted as a nuclear weapon country by it. On issues related to India, no matter they are South Asia regional or international, the policy and status of India must be respected. Both the nuclear weapon country and the civilization identity are India's awareness of self, their final establishment depends on interaction with the international community, and the recognition of which. Therefore, the perspective of the other country:identification, indifference or rejection is very crucial. The United States is the dominant country on international nuclear proliferation regime, and the only hegemony after the Cold War. As a result, its attitude toward India's identity perception is much more important than other countries.When the Obama government came to power, the policies it taken to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation regime and to intervene on Kashmir, together with its support of Pakistan, have contradict with India's identities of nuclear weapon country and civilization. The Obama government denies India's identity appeal, whether directly ignoring and denying on nuclear issue, or indirectly denying through its intervention on Kashmir and support of Pakistan. The essence of the conflict is that in its interaction with India, the United States chooses to deny India's newly constructed identities. As a result, the policies of the Obama government inevitably deviated with India's expectations, leading to the changes of the relationships between the two countries.