Explaining the India-U.S. Strategic Partnership: The Impact of Middle-Class Identity PhD Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Political Science in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Shivaji Kumar M.A. Graduate Program in Political Science The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Theodore G. Hopf, Advisor Dr. Richard K. Herrmann, Dr. Irfan Nooruddin Copyright by Shivaji Kumar 2012 Dissertation Abstract Social-Cognitive identity is at partnership‟s core. My dissertation explores an empirical puzzle of how and why did India and the United States form a strategic partnership in 2008. This bilateral relationship is puzzling because it appeared inconceivable to practitioners and theorists of international relations only a few years earlier. In this dissertation, I bracket the American side of the equation and instead focus on India. I then test the argument that domestic identities, composed of individual and social components, shape state foreign policies. I test this argument by employing a novel sequential, multimethod research design that combines discourse analysis and a traditional large-n survey in a single study. This research design consists of, first, using discourse analysis of India‟s select popular textual sources, and then employing the thematic categories generated from the discourse analysis to design and conduct a large-n survey. This survey was conducted with a sample size of 804 respondents in two Indian cities using cluster sampling. The combination of these two data collection techniques produced the empirical findings. The social-cognitive identities of India defined the content and nature of the India-U.S. strategic partnership; variations in those identities generated variations in the different aspects of this partnership. The substantive aspects of the partnership analyzed in the dissertation relate to the growth of economic relations, the conclusion of civil (and not ii military) nuclear agreement, and the clear disagreement over climate change. Given its theoretical framework and multimethod approach, my dissertation makes three contributions to the field of International Relations: it establishes strong correlations between disparate empirical phenomena in valid and reliable manner, it demonstrates novel ways to combine different research techniques to analyze new substantive problems, and it increases confidence to explain and predict state foreign and security policies. iii Dedication To my family. iv Acknowledgements I wish to thank my committee members for their continued support and encouragement to bring this dissertation to a close. No three people have had a greater influence on my professional life. Ted Hopf, my advisor and committee chair, has been a constant source of encouragement to push the work forward when my own inspiration flagged. His understanding of what it takes to write a dissertation under different limitations is simply unmatched. I wish to thank Professor Richard Herrmann for guiding the design of large-n survey and patiently helping interpret its results. With his direct and sharp questioning style, Professor Irfan Nooruddin kept this project from wandering into many dead-ends. Most importantly, I have benefited on numerous occasions from his friendly advice on how to successfully navigate the many unknowns of graduate school. This dissertation would have not been possible without the generous support of several funding institutions and centers. At Ohio State, I am thankful for two field research grants from the Mershon Center for International Security, one grant from the Office of International Affairs under its Global Gateways Initiative, and two graduate student grants from the Political Science Department. I also received scholarships from the Lions Club and the Ohio State‟s Office of Student Affairs. I remain grateful to the Ford Foundation three-year International v Fellowship for launching my graduate career in the United States. This dissertation would have not been possible without generous help from many different Indian libraries. In particular, I want to acknowledge the help of the chief librarian Mr. S.M. Kaushik of the Aaj Tak television in New Delhi for digging out year‟s old records of recording and making them available. The staff of the Nehru Memorial Library graciously assisted me in accessing journals and periodicals. Among others who helped me, Suzanne Hartwick played a critical role in giving this dissertation its final shape. Thank you, Suzanne. My family deserves sincere gratitude. Those who suffered severe second- hand effects of writing a dissertation are my daughter Sapna and my wife Sheetal Ghadse. Sheetal cheerfully subjected herself to many political science ideas, though the subject matter remained far removed from her interests. Among many in India, my mom and dad served as constant sources of determination and inspiration to bring the task at hand to a successful conclusion. To them, I dedicate this dissertation. vi Vita 2005............................................................................. MA, Purdue University 2001 ......................... M.Phil, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India 1997.................... St. Xaviers College, University of Bombay, Bombay, India Field of Study Political Science vii Table of Contents Dissertation Abstract ............................................................................................... ii Dedication .............................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ................................................................................................. viii List of Tables .......................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Explaining the India-U.S. Strategic Partnership: Why Domestic Identities Matter? .................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Social Cognitive Identities and Foreign Policy: A Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................ 16 Chapter 3: Sequential, Multimethod Identity Research in Security Studies: The Promise of Combining Discourse Analysis and Survey Methods ........................ 53 Addendum A: Table of select popular texts ..................................................... 86 Chapter 4: Discursive Identities of India (2008) ................................................... 87 Chapter 5: The India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement: the Impact of Shifting Middle-Class Discourses .................................................................................... 123 Addendum B: Questions Measuring India‟s Middle-Class Support for India- U.S. Nuclear Cooperation ............................................................................... 160 Chapter 6: The India-U.S. Economic Relations: The Impact of Middle-class Identity ................................................................................................................ 161 Addendum C: Correlations of India‟s middle-class values and American middle-class values ......................................................................................... 191 Addendum D: Correlations of India‟s middle-class values and foreign investment ....................................................................................................... 192 Chapter 7: India‟s Constraints in the U.S.-India Climate Change Agreement: The Impact of Shifting Middle-Class Consensus....................................................... 193 Chapter 8: Conclusions ....................................................................................... 233 References ........................................................................................................... 254 Primary Sources .............................................................................................. 254 Memoirs ...................................................................................................... 254 Documents .................................................................................................. 254 Secondary Sources ...................................................................................... 255 Appendices ...................................................................................................... 269 Appendix A: Table of select popular texts ..................................................... 269 viii Appendix B: Questions Measuring India‟s Middle-Class Support for India-US Nuclear Cooperation ....................................................................................... 270 Appendix C: Correlations of India‟s middle-class values and American middle- class values...................................................................................................... 271 Appendix D: Correlations of India‟s middle-class values and foreign investment ....................................................................................................... 272 ix List of Tables Table 4.1: Table 4.1. Discursive Identities of India 2008 ................................ 92 Table 5.1: Hardworking Middle-Class Discursive Components ..................... 132 Table 5.2: India‟s Pragmatic