Customer Reviews

India: Emerging Power

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Stephen P Cohen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and is their resident expert on South Asian strategic studies. Not only has he lived in Dehli for a number of years, he speaks Hindi and he has some unique insights as to how foreign policy is shaped inside the government based on his contacts with some of the key individuals. I have heard Cohen speak (English) on several occaisions and was impressed with the breadth and depth of his knowledge of South Asia.

In this book, Cohen details some of the world views of India's leadership during the 1990s. In 1996, the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and along with it came a new outlook on India's role in the world. The old school were the Nehruvians of the Congress Party (left-centrist), whose outlook was mainly anticolonial, socialist central planning and advocacy of third-world solidarity against Cold War blocs. The new "center-right realist" school, represented by Jaswant Singh and KC Pant realized the world had changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. The new world order was shaped by economics, and from economic strength comes military power. The new government knew that it had to open its economy to international competition in order to achieve the growth rates needed to lift their population out of poverty. No small task since about half of the world's poor are in India. They found China's example encouraging.

The BJP opened up their foreign policy establishment to input by outsiders such as journalists, academics, and even military personnel. The old Congress Party was always very secretive about their decision making process for fear of a military coup. It was also amazing that the BJP was tolerant of alternative views since some of its coalition partners were so intolerant - think of Shiv Sena, led by the notorious Bal Thackeray. Today the BJP is no longer in power, the Congress Party is back in power, but it is no longer the same Congress Party - it too now is a believer in benefits of open markets.

The liberalization of the economy naturally brought India and the US closer together. America's support of Pakistan has always been a sore point in the relationship, but India now reluctantly accepts the fact that a stable Pakistan is in everyone's best interest, given the nuclear saber rattling that took place in 1998.

The US is by far India's largest trading partner, and the impact that the two countries (the world's two largest democracies) have had on each other is profound. Many of the high-tech startups in Silicon Valley have been created by Indian engineers and funded by Indian money. The Indian-American community of 2 million is the single most affluent ethnic group in the US. Many go back to India with their American experiences and recreate the successes. There are now more IT scientists and engineers in Bangalore than in Silicon Valley.

Geostrategically, India will remain bogged down as a regional power as long as the problem of Kashmir festers, and by extension the problem of Pakistan. According to Cohen, India must put this problem behind it before it can become a great power. It is important for America to be evenhanded in its relations with both countries: for Pakistan is a frontline state in containing Islamic fundamentalism and India is a counterbalance China's growing military power. It is also important that India sets the example of democratic success to counter China's authoritarianism.

Cohen has written an excellent book that will be instructive not only to policymakers but to other readers as well. One Indian reviewer has called the book refractive, as seen through the prism of American eyes; it is to our distinction that the eyes were so learned and perceptive.

In the late 1980's the news media were full of stories about how there was a fundamental shift of economic and political power from North America and Europe to the western rim of the Pacific Ocean. Japan appeared to most to be an economic juggernaut and the Chinese economy was rapidly expanding. The Asian tigers of Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia also appeared to be smaller, yet very powerful economic entities. India was only rarely mentioned, and then largely as an afterthought. I remember India being mentioned largely in stories about the expansion of Chinese military power and how that power would affect the long-standing border dispute between India and China.
However, the scenarios of a world economically dominated by Japan proved to be wrong. The Japanese economy tanked and the Tigers went through a period of economic recession. However, the Chinese economy merely hiccuped and continues to grow at a very impressive rate. India has now emerged as a significant power, some areas of American high technology are largely controlled by Indian expatriates. In previous years, the jobs outsourced from the United States were in labor intensive manufacturing and reappeared in Mexico and Central America. Now, many of the jobs are in the software development and support areas, where India has gone from almost nothing to a major player. Approximately ten years ago, when I interviewed people who had received their computer science education in India; almost all of them had very little hands-on experience with computers. Most of their programs were written out and graded by the instructor without ever having been run on a computer.
The question now, and it is one with major implications for the global balance of power, is whether India can overcome its very serious problems and become a great power if not a superpower. It is still the home country of an enormous number of extremely poor people and religious, ethnic and caste differences create social problems that are very difficult to solve. There is also the continuing rivalry with Pakistan and the ongoing low-level conflict over the Kashmir region. Given that both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, it is generally conceded that the most likely eruption of a nuclear war is between Pakistan and India.
I was very impressed by this book, particularly in the areas of the conflict between India and Pakistan and the descriptions of how the Indian leadership sees itself and the role of India in the world. There is a tendency to simplify the rivalry between India and Pakistan, ignoring the roles of Iran, Afghanistan and China. While Pakistan has the military power to stand up to India, it is inherently much weaker economically. The alliance between China and Pakistan has been fairly strong for many years, forcing India to consider potential Chinese reactions to any move India may make against Pakistan. The actions of India in regards to her weaker neighbors of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh also made interesting reading. In some sense, India has been very much a bully, the foreign policies of Nepal and Bhutan are largely made in New Delhi.
Cohen also spends a great deal of time in describing the Indian tendency to approach events with a morally superior tone. While this is quite natural for a nation with such an extensive history, it creates problems when brutal power politics is being applied. India's two primary leaders after independence, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru both used moral superiority arguments in guiding India to independence. However, practical politics meant that force had to be used, arms purchased and relationships with other nations had to be managed. This tends to cool the moralistic ardor, but does not cancel it completely.
It is clear to all that the real question is whether India can become a great economic power. For if it can, then it will grow far more powerful than Pakistan, and the real rivalry in Asia will be between India and China. Cohen makes the arguments for both the affirmative and negative, but takes no firm position. That is a wise move, as there is enough underlying political instability to derail any movement towards economic superpower status.
India and China both have the potential to reach superpower status in at most a few decades, with China almost certain to do so. However, the status of India is less certain, there are as many reasons to believe they will as there are to believe that they won't. Cohen makes all the pro and con arguments, drawing from military, economic, religion and cultural resources. It is time that the United States once again takes an interest in India and from this book, you can learn a great deal about how India views itself, the other countries in south Asia, and the rest of world. I consider the book must reading for anyone interested in how the relationship between India and the United States should be managed.

As India became an independent nation in 1947, it became the world's second largest country in population and the world's larges democracies. Cohen in India:Emerging Power looks at how India has been advancing since 1947. Cohen looks at the different influences on India such as non-alliance, the Nehru view, and the Gandhi view. Cohen also deals deals with India's interactions with other countries such as the Soviet Union and later Russia, United States, Africa, China and other South Asian countries. Cohen also looks at some of the more well known issues of India such as its military. It relied on Soviet Aid for a long time but was never able to get as much as it wanted. Cohen looks at American influences on the Indian military and its desire to become an arms exporter. Cohen also looks at India's nuclear program and its relations with Pakistan. He goes through the history of the conflict and how nuclear weapons. It also deals with INdia's relations to the United states and about how the two countries can work togheter.

The author clearly makes a valiant effort at understanding the country. While he impresses with the scope of literature survey on the issue, Cohen fails to produce a thesis of any remark, or even coherence, from that wide reading. A great book if (1) you want to use it as a source book or (2)want to know what stereotypes have plagued America's understanding of India, for the author regurgitates a lot of such stereotypes. The book makes notable departures from mediocrity, as when it discusses Nehruvian antecedents to Indias present policy, but is on the whole uninspired. If the book is any barometer of USA's views on India, the future of the US-India alliance is not very bright.

The reviews up so far don't sound as if they are responding to the academic and policy value of Cohen's book. India: Emerging Power is an elegantly written, wide-ranging study of India's regional and global role. While (perhaps) a little overoptimistic about India's likely future success, Cohen assesses Indian diplomacy past, current strengths and weaknesses, and the way in which the US ought to engage India. Overall, Cohen comes out in favour of a closer US engagement with India - for positive reasons. The only drawback is that a second edition, post 9/11 and the 2002 Indo-Pak crisis, is needed - for much has changed, and India is close to achieving the regional dominance it demands. I highly recommend this book.

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How about a book on India written by a pro-Pakistan person who is a strong supporter of US hegemony in the world.

Will India become a Big Power in the near future?
Why India is all set to become a Big Power?
How India will probably become a Big Power?

If you are looking for answers to any one of the above questions then DO NOT read this book.

The book is organized into some 10 chapters. Most of them deal with the task of assessment of the performance of India as a nation state in the last 50 years.

The book makes a few "Not-so-Strong-Arguments". Such as "Nations are recognized by the enemies they keep." While Russia and China keep the US as the enemy-in-charge there are a few nations such as Libya, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea which keep USA as their Enemy-In-Chief. Nevertheless this doesn't elevate their prestige or reputation.

The book also says that Indian Diplomats are arrogant and are inclined to lecture western diplomats on a few issues (e.g. "Greatness of Indian civilization"). While one can agree that this tendency may exist, all the diplomats can hardly be branded as such. The author has tried to translate the strong opinion of a few diplomats into a strong general argument.

The author also seems to blow the drum of BJP government. This may have been in exchange for deeper access to the "Files".

The tone of the book is of a Boss who is doing your Performance Appraisal. There are too many premises.

The author also says that although India is a big power in making it cannot challenge the US. Do we need Stephan Cohen to certify that India cannot challenge US ? I believe all of us already know that.

The book has its pluses also. The book provides a lot of food for thought. The info that USS Enterprise was sent to the bay of Bengal in support of India in 1962 Sino-Indian war is a news.

If you are a regular reader of one Indian daily then this book may not be for you.
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Stephen Cohen's book, even though it deserves an update, ten years after its initial publication, is still an excellent overview on India's security, covering all relevant foreign policy and military aspects and drawing on the author's immense knowledge of the relevant literature and his decades long exposure to the country. This focus - and the resulting neglect of economic, social and developmental aspects - make the title a bit more encompassing than warranted. I would therefore suggest to complement it with books on these other aspects to get a full picture of India's rise and the challenges on the way.

Stephen Cohen presents a well-researched analysis in this book, with insightful comments on India's policy and diplomatic failures and successes, particularly during the crucial Nehruvian and Indira phases. He is, however, as another reviewer points out, a bit over-optimistic on the role India may play in the future, but I suppose that anyone who spends any meaningful time in India can't help but hope for a great future for these long-suffering but bright and capable people!

Its one of the best book in the market about South Asia
And i agree with the author that India is going to be a Power in South Asia
As USA and the free World have one thing common with India and that is Democracy and to work hard and live in a civilized world

An example of the author's cavalier statements is the following: "... that the Tigers represent an ideological threat to India. Not only do they want to divide Sri Lanka into two states, they envision a homeland for the Tamil nation that would include the northern districts of Sri Lanka and the Tamil-speaking state of Tamil Nadu, in a Tamil version of the "two-nation" theory."

This is utter rubbish. I challenge the author to provide evidence for his claim.

The Tamil Tigers are not fighting for the separation of the Tamil Nadu state of India. They are fighting for the independence of their country in the island of Sri Lanka. Their country was joined with Sri Lanka in 1833 by the British for their administrative convenience.