India’s Relationship with the US

Indo-US Relations, Indian-American diaspora, Indo-US interests, Debate on direction of Indo-US relations in the Phase of US Global Hegemony etc.

During the Cold War times, India’s closest fellowship was with the Soviet Union

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, India suddenly planted itself friendless in a decreasingly hostile transnational terrain

Still, during these times, India liberalized its frugality and integrated with the global economy

This policy and India’s emotional profitable growth rates in recent times have made the country a profitable mate for a number of countries, including the US global hegemony

In recent times, two new factors have surfaced in Indo-US relations. These factors relate to the technological dimension and the part of the Indian-American diaspora

These two factors are interrelated. Consider the following data

India’s total exports in the software sector, the US, absorbs about 65 percent of it

Thirty-five per cent of the specialized staff of Boeing is estimated to be of Indian origin

300,000 Indians work in Silicon Valley

Fifteen per cent of all high-tech launch-ups are by the Indian-American diaspora

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Debate on direction of Indo-US relations in the phase of US global ascendance:

Three significant shoes have surfaced in this regard:

Under this view, transnational politics is seen through the prism of military power. A specific section believes that India should maintain its aloofness from the US and concentrate on adding its own comprehensive public power

Another view holds the confluence of Indo-US interests as an occasion. It advocates a strategy that would allow India to take advantage of US ascendance and the collective conjunctions to establish the stylish possible options for itself

Opposing the US, it argues, is a futile strategy that will only hurt India in the long run

A third view advocates that India should take the lead in establishing a coalition of countries from the developing world. Over time, this coalition would become more critical and may succeed in bringing the hegemony down from its dominating ways

Still, India-US relations are too complex to be managed by a single strategy. India needs to develop an applicable blend of foreign policy strategies to deal with the US

A Literal Perspective about Hegemony and Balance of Power in World Politics:

As opposed to ascendance, the sense of balance of power presupposes that in the absence of world government, every state must ensure its own security and, in extreme circumstances, its own survival

Therefore, countries are acutely apprehensive of power distribution in the international political system and would not typically allow a single state to become so important as to pose serious trouble to other countries

This balance of power and sense of transnational politics, as outlined over, is supported by history

By convention, 1648 is regarded as the time in which the autonomous territorial state surfaced as the star actor in world politics

In the over three and a half centuries since also, there have been only two former occasions when a single state succeeded in gaining transcendence in the system to an analogous degree as the US predominates the system moment

France from 1660 to 1713 in the environment of European international politics

Britain with its global maritime conglomerate from 1860 to 1910

However, history also tells us that although at its height, hegemony seems formidable, it does not last forever. On the contrary, the balance of power politics over time reduces the relative power of the hegemony

In 1860, the high noon of the Puritanical period, Pax Britannica looked secure. By 1910, it was clear that Germany, Japan and the US had surfaced as contenders to British power

Therefore, twenty times from now, another great power, or maybe a coalition of great powers, could well crop just as US capabilities are declining in relative terms

Conclusion

India and the US share relations that can be traced back to the independence of the Indian subcontinent. As a result of liberalisation in India, other countries such as the US saw opportunities in the increasing growth rate of the country. This caused India to join forces with many nations, including the US. Some believe this friendship benefits the US more than it does India. The nations share the same views on counter-terrorism. Indians account for about 1% of the total population of the US. Both countries announced in 2016 their plan to become Travel and Tourism Partner Countries in 2017.

India’s Relationship with the US