South Asian contestations and India's strategic role : an advaita account

Shahi, Deepshikha (2023) South Asian contestations and India's strategic role : an advaita account. In: The United States and China in the Era of Global Transformations : Geographies of Rivalry. Bristol University Press, Bristol, pp. 73-96. ISBN 9781529228441

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Although US President Bill Clinton had nonchalantly floated the imagery of South Asia as "the most dangerous place in the world" in the wake of the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, his views were outrightly rejected by India (Babington and Constable 2000). Besides, China emerged as a stabilizing force in the region as it instigated its shuttle diplomacy between India and Pakistan not only after the nuclear tests in 1998 but also after the Mumbai attack in 2008. Even as the disputed Kashmir remains a nuclear flashpoint (notwithstanding the US offer to "help" resolve this lingering issue), several topical incidences—for example, the Doklam standoff, Pulwama attack, Ladakh clash, Taliban takeover, arms race, trade war, pandemic blame-game, and Russia—Ukraine crisis—have triggered fresh patterns of quadrilateral interactions between four key (non-)state actors in South Asia, namely, India, Pakistan, China, and the US. While the competitive and cooperative trends underpinning these quadrilateral interactions are difficult to fathom in terms of traditional Western realism (which considers the sphere of "the international" as fraught with dualistic self-other enmity), this chapter evokes a non-dualistic Global International Relations (IR) theory inspired by the Indian philosophy of Advaita to appraise India's strategic response to the ongoing US—China rivalry in South Asia: unlike the dualistic Western IR theories based on a fundamental self—other distinction, the non-dualistic Advaita Global IR theory ties the self and the other together with a globe marked with single hidden connectedness.

Item Type: Book Section
Keywords: Advaita Global IR theory | India | Pakisthan | Pulwama attack | Ladakh clash
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Social Sciences (General)
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > International Relations
JGU School/Centre: Jindal School of International Affairs
Depositing User: Subhajit Bhattacharjee
Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2023 20:07
Last Modified: 13 Nov 2023 20:07
Official URL: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-united-st...
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/6893

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item