Shaping the Emerging World: India and the Multilateral Order

Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu Pratap Bhanu Mehta Bruce Jones Editors Shaping the Emerging World India and the Multilateral Order Shaping the Emerging World Shaping the Emerging World India and the Multilateral Order Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu Pratap Bhanu Mehta Bruce Jones Editors brookings institution press Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2013 the brookings institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20036. www.brookings.edu All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Brookings Institution Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Shaping the emerging world order : India and multilateralism / Bruce Jones, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu Editors. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8157-2514-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Security, International—India. 2. National security—India. 3. Regionalism—India. I. Jones, Bruce. JZ6009.I64S53 2013 327.54—dc23 2013020600 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed on acid-free paper Typeset in Minion Composition by Oakland Street Publishing Arlington, Virginia Printed by R. R. Donnelley Harrisonburg, Virginia Contents Acknowledgments vii Part I. Introduction 1 A Hesitant Rule Shaper? 3 Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Bruce Jones Part II. Perspectives on Multilateralism 2 The Changing Dynamics of India’s Multilateralism 25 C. Raja Mohan 3 India and Multilateralism: A Practitioner’s Perspective 43 Shyam Saran 4 India as a Regional Power 57 Srinath Raghavan Part III. Domestic and Regional Drivers 5 The Economic Imperative for India’s Multilateralism 75 Sanjaya Baru 6 What in the World Is India Able to Do? 95 India’s State Capacity for Multilateralism Tanvi Madan 7 India’s Regional Disputes 115 Kanti Bajpai v vi contents 8 From an Ocean of Peace to a Sea of Friends 131 Iskander Luke Rehman Part IV. Multilateral Policy in Practice 9 Dilemmas of Sovereignty and Order: 157 India and the UN Security Council David M. Malone and Rohan Mukherjee 10 India and UN Peacekeeping: 177 The Weight of History and a Lack of Strategy Richard Gowan and Sushant K. Singh 11 From Defensive to Pragmatic Multilateralism 197 and Back: India’s Approach to Multilateral Arms Control and Disarmament Rajesh Rajagopalan 12 Security in Cyberspace: India’s Multilateral Efforts 217 Sandeep Bhardwaj 13 India and International Financial Institutions 237 and Arrangements Devesh Kapur 14 Of Maps and Compasses: 261 India in Multilateral Climate Negotiations Navroz K. Dubash 15 India’s Energy, Food, and Water Security: 281 International Cooperation for Domestic Capacity Arunabha Ghosh and David Steven 16 India and International Norms: R2P, Genocide 303 Prevention, Human Rights, and Democracy Nitin Pai 17 From Pluralism to Multilateralism? 319 G-20, IBSA, BRICS, and BASIC Christophe Jaffrelot and Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu Contributors 341 Index 343 Acknowledgments The genesis of this edited volume was a workshop on Indian foreign policy organized by New York University’s Centre on International Coopera- tion (CIC) in October 2010. Generously funded by the International Devel- opment Research Centre (IDRC), the workshop in New York provided an opportunity to chalk out the contours of the present book and establish a part- nership between CIC and the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi. Subsequently, then IDRC President David Malone’s scene-setting opus, Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy (Oxford Uni- versity Press, 2011), introduced many of the issues examined in detail here and provided a further impetus and inspiration for this volume. We are very grateful for the generous funding provided to this joint CIC- CPR project by IDRC and CPR’s core funders. Without their assistance the project would not have been possible. Our gratitude is expressed particularly to David Malone, Bruce Currie-Alder, and their colleagues at IDRC for unstinting intellectual, moral, and budgetary support throughout the project. That support—and generous funding to CIC from the Norwegian For- eign Ministry—enabled us to assemble a stellar cast of authors—a mix of upcoming and established Indian and international scholars and experts—for a workshop at CPR in New Delhi in February 2012. The meeting helped to clarify the key research questions and elaborate on the scope of the volume and the chapters. Our sincere thanks to the authors for their insights, their diligence in drafting the chapters, and the numerous revisions to hone the chapters to perfection. The publication of an edited volume can often become a long, tedious, and contentious process. So we are particularly grateful to Robert Faherty, Janet vii viii acknowledgements Walker, and their colleagues at Brookings Institution Press for making the entire process smooth, efficient, and effortless. Thanks to their endeavors this volume is being published in record time. We are also beholden to our colleagues at CIC and CPR for their dedica- tion in keeping the project on schedule, within budget, and in good spirits. At CIC the hard work and commitment of Yvone Alonzo, Emily O’Brien, Lynn Denesopolis, Ben Tortolani, and Colette Jaycox were invaluable for the suc- cessful culmination of this ambitious project. At CPR the conscientious work of Srinath Raghavan, Sandeep Bharadwaj, and L. Ravi in keeping the project on track was crucial and much appreciated. Finally, we thank our families for their love, support, and understanding. This book is dedicated to them and those who believe in India’s ability to shape the emerging world order. part i Introduction waheguru pal singh sidhu, pratap bhanu mehta, and bruce jones 1 A Hesitant Rule Shaper? A Defining Period India faces a defining period. As the world’s biggest democracy with an econ- omy among the world’s ten largest, India’s status as a reemerging global power is being not just recognized but increasingly institutionalized, with a seat on the G-20, increasing clout in the international financial institutions, entry into the club of nuclear-armed states, impending membership in the various technology and supply control regimes, and impressive peacekeeping cre- dentials under the United Nations. As India reasserts itself economically on the global stage for the first time since the 1500s, it will inevitably wield greater international political and, possibly, military influence.1 At the same time, geopolitical shifts create simultaneous opportunities and challenges: the opening with the United States, the rise of China, the global financial crisis, the so-called Arab Spring, the mounting crisis between Iran and the West as well as key Gulf states, and the growing international tussles over energy, climate, food, cyber security, rivers and the oceans. India has experienced rapid growth through participation in the multilateral order, and its development strategy and energy requirements make it dependent on sta- ble globalization. India has growing economic, trade, and energy stakes in literally every corner of the globe. Much of that trade and energy flows via the Indian Ocean, where India is an established maritime player but also faces enormous new demands and challenges. At this stage in its history, India has critical interests in just about every major multilateral regime and vital interests in several emerging regimes. The boundaries between Indian self-interest and the contours of the multilateral order have blurred. In short, India might 3 4 waheguru pal singh sidhu, pratap b. mehta, and bruce jones have no choice but to influence the evolving multilateral order if it is to sus- tain its own interests. Does India have the will to shape the changing multilateral order? If so, does it have the people, the tools, and the ideas to do so? How much do India’s troubled neighborhood and complex domestic politics inhibit a forward- leaning stance on the multilateral order? Or do they demand it? How do India’s elites— old and new— shape India’s political options? How do the ris- ing middle class and the growing urbanization influence India’s multilateral outlook? Many commentators on India’s posture with regard to the multilateral order have argued that it has often been little more than a defensive crouch: that nonalignment was rooted in a geopolitical strategy, but Indian policy has neither fully reacted to changing geopolitics and geoeconomics nor gen- uinely sought to shape the resulting global order. To some extent, this is a caricature, although, like many caricatures, it contains an element of truth. What is certainly true is that India’s posture on the multilateral order has not changed as quickly or as dramatically as the order itself. Jawaharlal Nehru reportedly argued, as echoed by John F. Kennedy’s famous charge to the American people, that states must ask not, what can the world do for us, but what can we do for the world?2 This is the necessary question for a power that would seek to shape the order in which it finds itself. The history of the multilateral order is one of change from within driven by states willing to bear the costs. While India has been a key international actor since its independence in 1947, it practiced, according to one observer, “universalism of the weak.”3 This was evident during the early decades in its leadership of the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) and the G-77 countries and its championing of the cause of decolonization in Africa and Asia, which reflected a principled and ideological, but ineffectual, approach to

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