It8217;s foreign policy without research

Since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, no External Affairs Minister has consciously devoted any time to developing a strong, vibrant and divers...

Since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, no External Affairs Minister has consciously devoted any time to developing a strong, vibrant and diversified research base for inputs on foreign policy and strategic studies. There has always been a propensity for EAMs to look towards South Block mandarins for policy assistance and information. Such a policy, at the time when Nehru was at the helm of affairs, appeared adequate simply because the culture of studying foreign policy issues was alien to a newly independent India.

Sadly, fifty years later, the situation continues to remain the same.During the Cold War, Nehru-inspired principles of non-alignment were translated into an effective and workable foreign policy, which allowed us to escape from the rigours of block identification. But the policy began to go adrift from the mid-1970s because of the mindless application of approaches derived from the logic of the 1950s. The 1974 PNE, the vacillation and eventual refusal to translate India8217;s status into a declarednuclear weapons state was one such dilemma, which continues to haunt policy makers and analysts even today. By the time the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Indian foreign policy was too rooted in non-alignment to take advantage of the situation to seek better relations with the stronger power of the time 8211; the US.

By the time the Cold War was officially over, Indian foreign policy suddenly lost its international moorings and a new but spasmodic search for policy options was undertaken. But these efforts have not translated into any coherent set of long-term goals and short-term objectives. Even the Gujral Doctrine, apart from restating principles that guided foreign policy in earlier periods, was never conceptualised into an operational strategy.

The inability to conceptualise and operationalise the foreign policy strategies comes primarily because of the exclusivity of two sets of actors 8211; the mandarins and the small set of Delhi-based analysts, whose views on most issues are wellknown and who have advised different political parties.

There is very little that they can contribute in terms of fresh and innovative thinking. For a country with nearly 100 crore people, there is a handful of research/academic institutions devoted to studying foreign policy and strategic issues and virtually none is capable of providing quality information and analysis of emerging global trends.

By neglecting the role in creating research institutions within key ministries, successive governments have denied themselves of a resource base, which is increasingly required to understand the fast moving and complex changes taking place in the world. In the Ministry of External Affairs, the Foreign Service Institute FSI has made sporadic efforts to initiate efforts to developing expertise. Under I. K. Gujral, a project with Delhi-based experts writing on different issues concerning India in the 21st century was attempted. A large number of papers were commissioned, but there was no proper method ofmid-term appraisal of work by scholars. The result was papers with uneven standards. Such an one-off effort cannot make the FSI encourage emerging talent. Like foreign service institutions in the developed world, which are like the frontal probes for new thinking and fresh ideas, the FSI would need to be energised to fulfil such tasks which are now essential for foreign policy decision-making. Such a scenario would hold true for the Defence Ministry and its foreign policy and security related research outfits.

In order to widen the base for foreign policy and strategic studies research in India, the new government would have to take conscious steps to make training/research institutes attached to key ministries become more energetic and accountable, contributing more substantially to examining issues affecting India8217;s security in detail. There is also a crying need to ensure that new talent outside the Capital is identified and harnessed. More institutional and financial support to existing researchinstitutions/ universities specialising in different areas should be made a priority.The success of any foreign policy is the result of a wide and competent research base, with as many new ideas filtering their way up to the decision making levels. Unfortunately, not for India.