New India’s foreign policy influences

ASHOK MALIK and RORY MEDCALF analyze the impact of three dynamic, non-traditional sources of influence on Indian foreign policy - an ambitious business community, a vocal diaspora and a rambunctious and aggressive news media.

In a Lowy Institute analysis, “India’s New World: Civil Society in the making of foreign policy”, they argue that there has been a greater and unavoidable democratisation of the crafting of India’s diplomacy due to a widening of the institutional sources where the flag followed trade, migrants acted as influence multipliers and ‘tabloid’ television informed middle-class opinion.

They conclude that it was impossible to map the trajectory of Indian diplomacy without parallel engagement and assessment of civil society, the media, trade  imperatives of individual industries, and the interaction of the diaspora and domestic, highly localised politics.

Pushing back.... softly

RORY MEDCALF, director of International Security Program at the Lowy Institute argues that a mix of development, deterrence and diplomacy could help New Delhi maintain an assertive posture without provoking Beijing.  In an opinion piece in The Australian, "Subtlety would help India rival China's clout", he states that New Delhi could pursue an assymetric strategy against Beijing in the maritime, cyber and nuclear realms similar to Beijing's strategy against Washington.