Rising India: Status and Power

Description

While India’s prospects as a rising power and its material position in the international system have received significant attention, little scholarly work exists on India’s status in contemporary world politics. This Routledge Focus book charts the ways in which India’s international strategies of status seeking have evolved from Independence up to the present day. The authors focus on the social dimensions of status, seeking to build on recent conceptual scholarship on status in world politics. The book shows how India has made a partial, though incomplete, shift from seeking status by rejecting material power and proximity to major powers, to seeking status by embracing both material power and major power relationships. However, it also challenges traditional understandings of the linear relationship between material power and status. Seven decades of Indian status seeking reveal that the enhancement of material power is one of only several routes Indian leaders have envisaged to lead to higher status. By arguing that a state requires more than material power to achieve status, this book reshapes understandings of both status seeking and Indian foreign policy. It will be of interest to academics and policy makers in the fields of international relations, foreign policy, and Indian studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface 1. Strategies of status seeking in world politics: the case of India Introduction The research question Situating the study: understandings of status in world politics Defining status: theoretical assumptions Understanding India’s status-seeking strategies: methodological approach Argument and overview of the book Key contributions and significance of the study Notes 2. Status without power in the Nehru era (1947–1964) Introduction Dominant material associations and international norms in the Nehru era Associational status seeking in the Nehru era Normative status seeking in the Nehru era Conclusion Notes 3. Incipient power, limited status in the post-Nehru era (1964–1991) Introduction Dominant material associations and international norms Associational status seeking in the post-Nehru era Normative status seeking in the post-Nehru era Conclusion Notes 4. Status and power in the post-Cold War era (1991–2016) Introduction Dominant material associations and international norms in the post-Cold War era Associational status seeking in the post-Cold War era Normative status seeking in the post-Cold War era Conclusion Notes 5. Conclusion Findings Contributions of the study Note Bibliography Index