Why India is not a Great Power

by Karnad

Since the economic liberalization of the early 1990s, India has been, on several occasions and at different forums, feted as a great power. This subject has been discussed in numerous books, but mostly in terms of rapid economic growth and immense potential in the emerging market. There is also a vast collection of literature on India's 'soft power '- culture, tourism, frugal engineering, and knowledge economy. However, there has been no serious exploration of the alternative path India can take to achieving great power status - a combination of hard power, geostrategics, and realpolitik.
In this book, Bharat Karnad delves exclusively into these hard power aspects of India's rise and the problems associated with them. He offers an incisive analysis of the deficits in the country's military capabilities and in the 'software' related to hard power--absence of political vision and will, insensitivity to strategic geography, and unimaginative foreign and military policies--and arrives at powerful arguments on why these shortfalls have prevented the country from achieving the great power status.

Genres: India, Politics

568 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

Reviews

[Sagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never has a sharper critique on Indian Foreign Policy been written. So passionately written, you would feel that Bharat Karnad is literally angry with the entitlement syndrome that India's Foreign Policy suffers from!

[Manish Jaitly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing read by a foreign policy hawk, Bharat Karnad. Great insight into workings of MEA and MOD. Bharat has outlined the Chinese challenge in detail and has built up a very strong case for the forces to shift focus from being Pak centric to being China centric.
The recent face off at Doklam underlines the case even further. There is no escaping China. A must read for all security enthusiasts of India.

[jiik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different perspective from the soft-power optimism which usually appears in the media.