India has a unique combination of membership in the G20, non-NPT status and a tradition of non-alignment. As it seeks to increase its voice in global cooperation, what will be India’s future role and responsibility?
The recommended actions from this session will be discussed in the Closing Plenary session.
Key Points
• In the multipolar world of “multi-alignments”, India will need to balance its national interests with regional and global responsibilities.
• While it has always possessed a sense of global citizenship, India cannot be altruistic at the expense of its citizens.
• As a major emerging economy, India has an increasing responsibility to promote regional integration and cooperation in its neighbourhood.
Synopsis
The global economic crisis has focused the international community’s attention on how international institutions and mechanisms of governance should be redesigned. This would include the rebalancing of global responsibility, with major developing economies such as India taking on greater roles. This is important in a multipolar world racked by contending pressures of globalization – the increasing sense of mutual dependence simultaneous with the intensification of forces of disruption and intolerance. The problems the world faces have no passports and cannot be solved by any single country.
The designation of the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation is a significant reform measure. It gives developing economies a greater voice over the reshaping of the international financial architecture. But this is only a first step. The challenge will be to find ways to further redesign the global system to reflect current geopolitical and international economic relations.
Future systems may in fact be somewhat chaotic. After the dichotomous Cold War era of alignment or non-alignment, pragmatic “multi-alignment” is the norm. Countries align according to issue or interests, sometimes partnering, sometimes contending. For India, the challenge is to figure out what to do now that it has a seat at the global table. Like any country with greatness thrust upon it, India has to figure out how to balance national interests with its regional and global responsibilities. This is a difficult task for a nation that does not typically wield its hard power but relies more on its soft power.
What does this mean for emerging India? First, it must have its own domestic house in order to preserve its moral authority as a democracy and as a progressive country that has been pursuing tough reforms for two decades. Second, India must be able to assert itself on the international stage, defending its interests even if it means opposing majority pressure to accept agreements or terms that would negatively impact Indians. Yet, India cannot be an argumentative spoiler, an accusation often lodged by critics of its approach to trade talks. Third, India needs to develop its leadership in South Asia to boost cooperation in the region and promote stability and peace in the neighbourhood.
As India takes in hand more levers of global power, it must examine and come to terms with what it actually means to wield significant influence in the world. Like any other emergent nation, can India perform on the world stage without thinking only along the paradigm of its own national interests? If countries at the negotiating table use nationalist instincts as their default position, the only outcome is deadlock. The impasses over the Doha Round and climate change are cases in point.
India nonetheless has a track record of global collaboration that is often overlooked or under-appreciated. Its soldiers consistently participate in international peacekeeping operations, for example. This is evidence of India’s long-held sense of global citizenship. India wants to be a responsible global player. But it must always keep at the forefront the fact that it is still a developing economy, with more than half a billion people without access to electricity. At this stage of its development, India cannot afford to be altruistic at the expense of its own population.
On the regional front, India has in fact made efforts to promote regional integration and collaboration, with positive results. Bhutan’s use of Indian assistance to develop its electricity sector, now the top contributor to its GDP, is a good example. But geopolitical circumstances have meant that South Asia is decidedly less connected than other regions. India needs to explore ways to deepen and broaden relationships with its neighbours, both in South Asia and to the East.
While relations with China are marked by disagreements on a range of issues including territory, it is important not to exaggerate the differences, which are not unusual in any complex relationship. India’s interaction with China will be a critical dynamic to watch in the future. The emergence of India is proving that democracy need not have a high growth penalty, an implicit challenge to the Chinese model of directed growth under an authoritarian system. On these two fast-growing countries lies the responsibility for bolstering Asia’s position in the world in what is supposed to be the Asian Century.
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