This project is a culmination of 4 years of thinking, and one year of substantive work to answer some deep-seated questions about international politics that have always invoked my curiosity and intrigue. In generally trying to understand State behavior in international politics, my key inquiry for the project was if and how India’s foreign strategy might change in the coming years, and what factors might contribute to it. Therefore, the key goal of the project was to determine India’s geopolitical position in a highly dynamic multipolar world order.
The foundation for this project was grounded in key theories of international relations. I then conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of arms flows to determine potential alignments. Combining theory and analysis helped me verify my hypothesis, that India currently finds itself in a defensive neorealist position, and it might either choose to change its historical non-alignment strategy and ally with the West, or pursue the same but difficult-to-navigate strategy in order to maximize benefits from all sides. Lastly, this project went a step further than fundamental neorealist theory to also account for the role of domestic politics in shaping international power dynamics, and both the theoretical and analytical frameworks constructed for this project are robust for other similar analyses as well.
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