Backing Soft power with hard power

JOHN LEE of the Australia's Centre for Independent Studies analyzes India's soft power and argues that India's soft power potential was based not just on its culture and values but also on the alignment of those values to regional and global standards. In a Foreign Policy Analysis article, "Unrealised potential: India's 'soft power' ambition in Asia", he cautions that India's potential suffered from lingering uncertainty since its soft power was not perceived as being adequately backed by 'hard power' and that could improve only if it undertook reforms.

Swinging into focus

JOHN LEE of the Center of Independent Studies in Sydney opines that the developing bilateral partnership between Washington and New Delhi could turn out to be the swing factor in the “Asian Century”. In an op-ed in the Korea Herald “India Fast Becoming Asia’s Swing State”, he states that the combination of a booming economy, a large military, positive perceptions in other key Asian states, a growing military supply relationship with the West had the ingredients to entrench New Delhi’s status as a major power center within Asia.

Canberra's blind spot

John Lee, fellow at the Sydney-based Center for Independent Studies states that despite the abundance  of  strategic  and diplomatic activity in the region reflecting New Delhi’s growing importance, India remains Australia’s great ‘strategic blind-spot' and as a result Canberra's diplomatic engagement with New Delhi was poor. In a Foreign Policy Analysis paper, "The importance of India: Restoring sight to Australia's strategic blind spot" he traces the rise of 'strategic India' and the continuing weak Canberra-New Delhi link in the wake of India's improving government-to-government relationships with key security partners in the Asia-Pacific.