Absolutely fascinating and so helpful - thanks. It seems to me that the single biggest geopolitical priority for the US and the wider democratic world is binding India into our side. How do we do this without pushing India away by demanding too close an alignment?
That is THE question. Patience, for one thing. Second, consistency (ie, not Mr. Trump) for another. Third, you simply have to understand the red lines—they have to do with agriculture and the fear of the East India Company. And fourth, tell them whatever you want to tell them, be as rude as you like, but, DO IT IN PRIVATE! It will be slow; it will take a long time, but eventually, India itself has no choice. It isn’t, and never has been, particularly authoritarian culturally. Who is it going to align with? Dictatorships? Communists? Not going to happen…
Thanks - that sounds like great advice. Not sure how many of our political leaders are listening. I live in the UK where the whole India question is surrounded by our own version of history
The UK should have (but does not) pole position in terms of securing a good relationship with India and vice-versa. For the life of me, I don’t understand why (but then I don’t understand why you guys are unable to build anything as well). There is a giant reservoir of goodwill towards the UK in India. You should we using it… but aren’t.
Sadly we are actively discouraging this relationship. Specifically with the way we deal with overseas students and more widely in terms of migration, visas and so on - crazy but true
I can tell you that the Indian government is pretty puzzled. India is a big source of foreign investment into the UK. It’s a totally friendly county with deep historical ties. It’s a big well-wisher of the UK. It’s the fourth largest economy in the world, and very soon will be third largest (overtaking Germany). Given the one child policy, and the likely totalitarian disaster likely in China, in some finite number of years it will be second largest. Why the UK would give up its pole position with all that, I don’t know and I cannot understand. Too self-absorbed perhaps?
Indian state’s attitude to the US in the 70s was informed by Nixon administration’s role in the 1971 war. IMO Indian wariness of America was entirely justified back then.
There was less reason by the 1980s.
But one must also appreciate how capricious US foreign policy can be. So a bit of delay in updating Indian stance was understandable.
India and US have been pro each other for the entirety of my lifetime. But we’re seeing the capricious side resurface of late.
Absolutely fascinating and so helpful - thanks. It seems to me that the single biggest geopolitical priority for the US and the wider democratic world is binding India into our side. How do we do this without pushing India away by demanding too close an alignment?
That is THE question. Patience, for one thing. Second, consistency (ie, not Mr. Trump) for another. Third, you simply have to understand the red lines—they have to do with agriculture and the fear of the East India Company. And fourth, tell them whatever you want to tell them, be as rude as you like, but, DO IT IN PRIVATE! It will be slow; it will take a long time, but eventually, India itself has no choice. It isn’t, and never has been, particularly authoritarian culturally. Who is it going to align with? Dictatorships? Communists? Not going to happen…
Thanks - that sounds like great advice. Not sure how many of our political leaders are listening. I live in the UK where the whole India question is surrounded by our own version of history
The UK should have (but does not) pole position in terms of securing a good relationship with India and vice-versa. For the life of me, I don’t understand why (but then I don’t understand why you guys are unable to build anything as well). There is a giant reservoir of goodwill towards the UK in India. You should we using it… but aren’t.
Sadly we are actively discouraging this relationship. Specifically with the way we deal with overseas students and more widely in terms of migration, visas and so on - crazy but true
I can tell you that the Indian government is pretty puzzled. India is a big source of foreign investment into the UK. It’s a totally friendly county with deep historical ties. It’s a big well-wisher of the UK. It’s the fourth largest economy in the world, and very soon will be third largest (overtaking Germany). Given the one child policy, and the likely totalitarian disaster likely in China, in some finite number of years it will be second largest. Why the UK would give up its pole position with all that, I don’t know and I cannot understand. Too self-absorbed perhaps?
Indian state’s attitude to the US in the 70s was informed by Nixon administration’s role in the 1971 war. IMO Indian wariness of America was entirely justified back then.
There was less reason by the 1980s.
But one must also appreciate how capricious US foreign policy can be. So a bit of delay in updating Indian stance was understandable.
India and US have been pro each other for the entirety of my lifetime. But we’re seeing the capricious side resurface of late.