The Cold War defined the international strategic environment from 1945 to 1990. Jawaharlal Nehru formulated non-alignment as Indias grand strategy,which he viewed as the most appropriate one to enable India to consolidate and integrate itself as a pluralistic,secular and democratic union of states. That strategy enabled India to deal successfully in its initial years with the communist insurgency launched after the Calcutta congress of Asian communist parties in 1947,following the Zdhanov thesis. While communist insurgencies were started in Indonesia,Malaya,the Philippines,the Indo-Chinese states and Burma,India was the only instance where the communists were enabled to join mainstream democratic politics and wield power at the state level.
That grand strategy enabled India to benefit from large-scale PL-480 assistance from the US,and from US technical support for Indias Green Revolution. India also set up steel plants,IITs and industrial projects like BHEL with assistance from other Western democracies. The Indian armed forces initial development and their apolitical tradition were also the result of then-close cooperation with the UK. Non-alignment also enabled India to obtain Soviet support,not only for major projects like Bhilai and Durgapur but also to develop a mutuality of security interests with the USSR: China,under Mao,had turned aggressive against both India and the Soviet Union.
Nehru emphasised that while the pursuit of the national interest is the primary driver of a countrys foreign policy,it should be enlightened national interest. It should not hurt other nations national interest unduly. What kind of grand strategy does India need today,which will serve its own interests as well as international interests?
The world of the 21st century is radically different from what that of the 20th century. This is a globalised world,with nuclear weapons in the hands of nine nations. As former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote,For the first time since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,the prospect of violent conflict between great powers is becoming ever more unthinkable. Major states are increasingly competing in peace,not preparing for war. The recent financial crisis and the international efforts to counter terrorism illustrate how interdependent todays world is. Unlike in the Cold War period,when democracy was confined to a few states,today all major powers except China and some of the emerging economies are pluralistic,secular and democratic. The US,EU,Russia,Japan,India,Indonesia,South Africa,Brazil,Mexico,South Korea and Australia are part of this formidable list,over half of the global population.
If the world is to remove poverty,sustain its development and protect its global commons,it must adhere to the values of pluralism,secularism and democracy. They are threatened by jingoistic,authoritarian systems and religious extremism. Terrorism has become a derivative of nuclear deterrence,practiced by states of doubtful legitimacy,and democracies have been extensively targeted. Religious,ethnic and economic grievances are sought to be exploited to subvert democratic,pluralistic and secular nations through arming terrorist groups.
These negative global trends have to be effectively dealt with by pluralistic,secular and democratic nations coming together,just as non-aligned nations came together to oppose the Cold War and the arms race. In this age of IT and globalisation,those nations which support one-party authoritarian systems or propagate religious extremism are not totally immune from the pressures of global values. Greater intelligence-sharing on terrorist and subversive activities,more unified efforts to intercept financial flows in support of such activities,and greater military and security cooperation among the community of democratic,pluralistic and secular states especially in defence of the global commons should help to defend their values against such threats.
India took the initiative on non-alignment. Subsequently it appealed to Nasser and Tito,and they promoted the non-aligned movement. There is a community of democracies based in Warsaw meant for the promotion of democracy. India and the US are members. There are another 15 member countries: Chile,Poland,the Czech Republic,Lithuania,Mali,Mexico,Portugal,South Africa,South Korea,the Philippines,Mongolia,Morocco,El Salvador,Cape Verde,and Italy. It is obvious that this group is not meant to defend the values of pluralism,secularism and democracy. The grand strategy called for today has to be more robust and proactive than the non-aligned movement or community of democracies. New institutions like the G-20 are developing. There are groups like IBSA (India,Brazil and South Africa),Asean,the East Asia Summit,the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation,the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe,the Organisation of the Islamic Conference,NATO,the Organisation of American States,the Organisation of African Unity and the Commonwealth. The creation of an organisation to defend pluralism,secularism and democracy itself will increase the pressures on deviant states to mend their behaviour.
There will no doubt be opposition to the idea. Crypto-communists and closet Maoists will denounce it as an imperialist conspiracy. Wahabis and jihadis will call it anti-Islamic since,according to them,democracy is anti-Islamic. When the leaders of the first two pluralistic,secular and democratic countries of the world meet,they are expected to explore the common grand strategy required to defend pluralism,secularism and democracy and a world order that will progress these ideas forward.
These days strategic partnership is a much-used term. There can be strategic partnership in different areas. India and the US face the common strategic challenges of religious extremism and single-party governance ideology. There is general agreement that these challenges cannot be met by the actions of a single nation,however powerful it may be. Therefore,the oldest and largest democracies have an obligation to take the lead in shaping the new world order of the 21st century.
The writer is a senior defence analyst
