See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/258142610

Book Review: Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century

Article · September 2013

DOI: 10.1177/0974928413489608

CITATIONS READS
0 4,337

2 authors:

Simi Mehta Obja Hazarika

Jawaharlal Nehru University Dibrugarh University
12 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION    14 PUBLICATIONS   8 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Research paper View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Obja Hazarika on 20 December 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Book Reviews 305

Overall, an interesting read, particularly the theoretical underpinnings the author has build upon the
existing literature and applied at the regional analysis. While much discussion has taken place on India’s
policy towards her neighbours and its impact on her future rise, the author kneads the well-known facts
and events to provide an answer to such questions. The book offers valuable insights and novel perspec-
tives on contemporary questions of power, leadership and foreign policy pursuit, and thereby sheds some
light to approach, through an analytical framework, the question of distinguishing regional and global
powers which remains largely deliberated in International scholarship. Having said that, the work needs
to encompass a broader discussion of other regional powers, including Brazil and South Africa in order
to draw more general understanding of regional powers based on the three concepts, and extend its
relevance to other regions endowed with peculiar settings.

References
Flemes, Daniel (Ed.) (2010). Regional leadership in the global system: Ideas, interests and strategies of regional
powers. Ashgate: Farnham.
Hurrell, Andrew (2006). Hegemony, liberalism and global order: What space for would-be great powers?
International Affairs, 82(1), 1–19.
Putnam, Robert D. (1988). Diplomacy and domestic politics: The logic of two-level games. International
Organization, 42(3), 427–460.

Arundhati Sharma
PhD Scholar
South Asian Studies (CSCSEASWPS)
School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
arundhatisharma83@gmail.com

Tharoor, Shashi, Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century (New Delhi: Penguin Books India,
2012). Pp. 456, Price `799.
DOI: 10.1177/0974928413489608

India has long been dubbed as a superpower in waiting. India’s celebrated writer, politician and diplomat
Shashi Tharoor, former Under Secretary General of Communication and Public Information at the
United Nations, currently a Member of Parliament charged with the responsibility of human resource
development as a Minister of State, is out with his latest book Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st
Century. The book was launched in Delhi by the Vice President of India, Shri Mohammed Hamid Ansari,
in the presence of many eminent politicians, cutting across all political parties. In Mumbai, the book was
launched by the Bollywood celebrity Shah Rukh Khan.
The book Pax Indica, unlike Pax Romana, Pax Britannica or Pax Americana is not an evocation about
India ruling the world but is about India contributing to a cooperative world order. It quintessentially
offers a narrative of India’s international relations not just for scholars but is also an attempt to enable its
crisp understanding for all those who are intrigued about India’s foreign policy. The book comes at an

India Quarterly, 69, 3 (2013): 299–315

306 Book Reviews

apt time when the assumed custodians of the global order (the US and Europe) are beset with several
domestic and economic problems, and are constantly imploring ‘rising powers’ to assume greater respon-
sibility in the world.
Pax Indica is a fairly copious book having a multi-pronged orientation. First and foremost it talks
about India’s national interests, and what any Indian at the grassroots expects out of India’s foreign
policy. Additionally, Pax Indica stresses on the link between foreign policy and domestic needs of a
nation. According to Tharoor, Indian foreign policy ought to serve the interests of domestic transforma-
tion, of challenges of fighting poverty, of underdevelopment and assuring every Indian a decent share of
life. From this ambition flows the importance of India having relations with those countries which are
sources of trade, investment, energy security, and more importantly with countries which are sources of
India’s food security. Besides this, it is not just India’s needs and interests that Tharoor talks about, but
also about India’s responsibilities towards the world as all countries of the world are closely knit together
and since internationalism has been ingrained into India’s policies ever since it was first declared by
Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru during the course of his ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech.
India’s neighbourhood has been extensively dealt with in Pax Indica given the axiomatic position it
occupies in determining India’s foreign policies. For the continuing distress in relations between India
and Pakistan, Tharoor squarely blames the military in Pakistan. With the insight of a diplomat and a
minister, and echoing the frustration of an average Indian, he articulates, possibly for audiences both in
India and Pakistan, that

New Delhi could make it plain to Islamabad that unless there is genuine and substantial cooperation on bringing
the 26/11 plotters to book, we will not hesitate to use the international mechanisms available to us to ask Pakistan
awkward questions, and to bring the weight of the international community to bear on the issue of Pakistan’s
failure to meet its international obligations. (p. 55)

The Indian subcontinent which remains besieged by hostility for most part requires new mechanisms
to reinforce cooperation and dynamism. A constructive proposal, floated by Tharoor in his latest
book, is that of a ‘sub-regional water resources management project’ involving Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Nepal and India which would bind these nations into cooperative partnership that would mutually
benefit them and could later grow to involve other nations of the region. Such projects will demand col-
laboration from the actors involved and which may segue into the formation of a region flourishing as
an economic or a socio-cultural–intellectual hub, instead of the conflict-riddled area which it currently
reflects.
Pax Indica brings to the fore several illuminating measures with regard to bilateral relationships
between India and other nations and regions, which Indian foreign policy-makers can contemplate. In a
somewhat provocative tone, it suggests that as a response to China’s overtures on Arunachal Pradesh and
Kashmir, India should focus on a regenerated India–Taiwan relationship especially on the economic
front. It promotes the idea of the Indian North-east region as a gateway to East and South-east Asia and
refreshingly suggests that a burgeoning India-EU relationship can be conceived of as a genuine alterna-
tive to the blandishments of the US and China.
When Tharoor outlines India’s relations South-east Asia, with the Arab world, with Europe, Africa
and Latin America and with the US, he purports to underline the fact that though non-alignment lies at
the basis of India’s foreign policy, India needs to think beyond non-alignment to the present era of the

India Quarterly, 69, 3 (2013): 299–315

Book Reviews 307

multi-alignment. Tharoor emphasises the need for India to play a constructive role in the international
network of nations and strive for the creation of a multi-polar world.
In addition, the book covers general themes on India’s forthcoming role on deciding the faith of glo-
bal commons, encompassing the issues of environment, human rights, refugees, peacekeeping, drug
trafficking, cyber space and the United Nations. Tharoor insists that India has the capacity to make a
valuable contribution in the governance of the global commons as it is currently in a position to set the
rules in the international system, as against merely accepting the rules set by more powerful countries.
Tharoor writes at length on leveraging India’s enormous strengths in the arena of soft power (due cred-
its given to Professor Joseph Nye). The book also talks about India’s Grand Strategy in the world. He
candidly enunciates the weaknesses of Indian diplomacy (as a former diplomat once remarked that India’s
diplomacy is like the love-making of an elephant, which is conducted at a very high level, accompanied
by much bellowing, and the results are not known for two years) and the Ministry of External Affairs.
Tharoor concedes that though Indian diplomacy has become more agile and more reflective in the current
times, yet he makes a crusade on particularly the woefully inadequate size of the diplomats (900 as
against 20,000 in the US. In fact, the US has more professional foreign policy employees in the embassy
in New Delhi than India has worldwide!). The recruitment policy of India’s diplomats (through the
one-size-fits-all examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, which selects police,
district magistrates, customs officers and, of course, diplomats!) is thoroughly criticised. He advocates an
exam which would identify young internationalist minded Indians who have the curiosity of the world,
who have the aptitude of foreign languages and know how to talk to foreigners and that the examination
must be conducted all over the world for NRIs who know how to deal with the world on its own terms.
He also suggests hiring mid-career professionals in the field and if required from the private sector on a
contractual basis, who could contribute through their expertise, who would otherwise not be able to.
The leitmotif in the book is possibly the incessant reiteration of India’s non-revisionist stance in the
world. Burdened with the ‘rising power’ title, India has to live up to the expectations which come along
with this coveted caption. India’s domestic shortcomings must be addressed before India can success-
fully share the mantle along with the great powers. A nation-state bearing the label of a ‘rising power’
carries the onus of justifying this gratuitous title, along with the additional burden of overcoming abun-
dant domestic problems which it faces on the way to great power status. The task on the shoulders of a
‘rising nation’ increases when it has to simultaneously allay the fears of both its neighbours and existing
great powers about the benign nature of its rise. Given India’s rising power status, it becomes necessary
to enunciate the non-threatening nature of India’s emergence in order to ensure that countries concerned
are unflustered about the emergence of a new power. In a manner akin to Zheng Bijian’s ‘Peaceful Rise’
hypothesis about China, presented in the Foreign Affairs journal in 2005, Tharoor has attempted to
portray India as a status quo power which has

...no desire to challenge the international system as did other rising powers like Germany and Japan in the 19th
and 29th centuries, but wish to be given a place at the global high table. Without that they would be unlikely to
volunteer to share the primary burden for dealing with such issues as terrorism, climate change, proliferation and
energy security, which concern all of us. (Tharoor 2012, 23)

Evidently, Tharoor’s experiences during his long stint as an international civil servant and those of his
short but chock-a-blocked tenure as an Indian Member of Parliament have been harnessed to piece

India Quarterly, 69, 3 (2013): 299–315

 308 Book Reviews

together Pax Indica. The author acknowledges and accepts the daunting challenges which India faces
with regard to its neighbours and the world. Nonetheless, the running thread in the volume is that of
hope; Tharoor remains hopeful of India accomplishing its goals and ideals in the world by overcoming
the multitude of problems which currently beleaguer it. There are several novel ideas brought out in the
book which could help to find a more enabling environment for India. However, like any other non-
theoretical volume on foreign policy, its shelf-life will undeniably be short, given the dynamic nature of
international relations. The book is found to be lacking in both economic and strategic assessment of
India. Its greatest contribution, perhaps, will remain the attempt to enunciate the role foreign policy plays
in the fulfilment of domestic requirements of a nation. The attempt to assuage great powers and
apprehensive neighbours about rising India’s status quo orientation can be comprehended as another
significant message intended by Tharoor in his latest literary outing.

Simi Mehta
PhD Scholar
United States Studies
School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
simimehta.08@gmail.com

Obja Borah Hazarika

PhD Scholar
United States Studies
School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
obja11@gmail.com

Nye, Joseph S., Jr, The Future of Power (New York: Public Affairs, 2011). Pp. xviii + 300.
DOI: 10.1177/0974928413489609

The idea of soft power in its present manifestation has been a brain child of one of the most known liberal
faces of the current international relations scholarship—Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Over the last two decades, Nye
has meticulously pursued the idea and has been the main force behind the proliferation of the concept both
in academic as well as policy circles. Today, it will not be an exaggeration to say that soft power is one of
the most visible component of foreign policy of many states around the world. Five major works of Nye
define the historiography of the idea of soft power. These are as follows: Bound to Lead (1990),
The Paradox of American Power (2002), Soft Power (2004), Power in Global Information Age (2004)
and recently The Future of Power (2011).
The intellectual stimulus for the project of soft power was provided by the declinist theories of inter-
national politics which ruled the academic space during 1980s. The thesis of rise and fall of great powers
over long cycles of consolidation and eventual overstretch predicted that Cold War has left America
completely enervated of its power resources and the superpower is now in a mode of decline. For Nye,

India Quarterly, 69, 3 (2013): 299–315

View publication stats