Are India’s foreign policy institutions undermining the country’s rise? Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in this month’s issue of Asia Policy that “India’s own foreign policy establishment hinders the country from achieving great-power status.” He argues that India needs to reform and expand the foreign service and develop stronger foreign policy research by increasing access to information, investing in think tanks and improving university education.
“Institutions charged with researching, formulating, debating, and implementing foreign policy are too often underdeveloped, in decay, or chronically short of resources. In particular, India’s diplomatic service, think-tanks, and universities are not yet up to the task of managing an agenda befitting a great power. As a result, even a wealthier and more powerful India may remain politically inconsequential, unable to set forth and implement a realistic global agenda or to exercise international leadership.”
Figure from Asia Policy.
