India’s vision of world order: multi-alignment, exceptionalism and peaceful co-existence

ABSTRACT

This article explores India’s view of the world order and its role in it. As the world’s largest democracy and emerging power India is seen as a key actor and partner for the West in the global order. The article argues that India does not want to be merely co-opted into the existing liberal order and join the Western international community but pursue its own world-order policy. This policy is informed by the conviction that the future world order will be polycentric, in which multiple powerful actors with different political systems, cultural traditions and interests are interlocked in interdependent relations. Therefore, India must pursue a policy of multi-alignment and seek partnerships with all the relevant actors in the world, while avoiding overly close or one-sided relations with particular countries or groupings. India’s priorities are its foreign policy autonomy, socio-economic development and the overcoming of political and economic discrimination in the world order.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• world order
• global governance
• foreign policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Thorsten Wojczewski is a teaching fellow and post-doctoral researcher at the India Institute, King’s College London. Before joining King’s, he was a research fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg. His research focuses on India’s foreign policy, world order, global power shifts, post-Western IR and critical security studies.

Notes

1 India was the second fastest growing economy of the world in 2016. However, the government's recent demonetization policy decelerated the country's economic growth and led to gloomier forecasts for its economic growth in 2017, primarily as a result of a temporary negative consumption shock caused by cash shortages and payment disruptions (IMF, 2017).

2 See for the origins of the notion of Indian exceptionalism: Sullivan (2014).

3 See for the notion of victimhood in Indian foreign policy: Chatterjee-Miller (2013).

4 However, Gandhi's principle of satyagraha is based on the conviction that a peaceful and noble goal does not justify violent means (Juergensmeyer, 2002, p. 40).