NonAlignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century by Sunil Khilnani

Author:Sunil Khilnani [Khilnani, Sunil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789351181934
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

International Institutions

Engagement with international institutions has been integral to India’s foreign and strategic policy. But India will now have to engage with, and respond to, these institutions in new contexts that are themselves shifting.

The first element of this new context is the sheer number of institutions. There has been an exponential growth in new institutions, summit processes and interstate groupings. Stretching across the world today is a thicket of regional, global and functional institutions. Servicing the commitments entailed by participation in these international institutions requires an outlay of resources and the ability to draw on appropriate expertise. In fact, making full strategic use of the opportunities afforded by these institutions depends to a great extent on capacity. And India’s capacities are currently lagging well behind its commitments.

What is, of course, driving the proliferation of new institutions is the fact that our inherited global bodies like the UN or the Bretton Woods institutions, all creations of the post–Second World War political settlements, are constricted by the circumstances of their origins. They are the creatures of an era still dominated by the West, and quite inappropriate for a world that has seen the end of the European empires and the rise of Asia’s economic dynamism. These institutions require fundamental reform to reflect the new distribution of power in the world. India must actively pursue a more influential role in these institutions—a position commensurate not just with its growing power but also with its expanding range of global interests. India’s claim to active participation in these institutions will importantly rest on the fact that its own interests are impinged upon by the decisions of these institutions and therefore it must have a full voice in decision-making. We can expect the reform process to be gradual, but we should continue to push it along.

The third major change in context is that different institutions are actively competing for legitimacy. And in turn there is competition among nations for entry into several of these new institutions and groupings. Faced with the proliferation of international clubs, India will have to take some important decisions as to which institutions to lend its weight and commitment: whether at the regional, trans-regional or global level.

It is right that as India’s stature rises, it should seek to reshape the global order by influencing and reshaping international institutions. But we will also face a basic dilemma—which all rising and great powers have faced. Should such powers lend their weight to global institutions, even if it means occasionally adverse consequences for themselves? Or should they practise a politics of great power exceptionalism, where multilateral institutions matter only in so far as they are a medium of projecting national power? In practice the choices are not so stark. But there are occasional trade-offs between a single-minded pursuit of national interest and investment in the legitimacy of global institutions. We will have to protect our core national interests. But the world will be looking to see how much we choose to invest in strengthening the legitimacy and authority of international institutions.

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