Introduction: A Tiny Nation of Outsized Importance The Maldives is one of the world’s smallest nations—an archipelago of coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean—yet few neighbours matter more to India’s maritime security. It sits astride the sea lanes through which the bulk of India’s trade and energy flows, making it the ‘toll-gate’ of the…
Introduction: A Relative, Not Merely a Friend Few relationships are as intimate—or as fraught—as India’s with Sri Lanka. The two share a civilizational bond stretching back over 2,500 years, woven from Buddhism, the Ramayana and centuries of trade, migration and kinship. As a Sri Lankan leader once put it, ‘India is a relative of Sri…
Introduction: The Gateway to the East Myanmar occupies a singular place in India’s neighbourhood: it is the only ASEAN country that shares a land border with India (about 1,643 km) and the only Southeast Asian state on India’s frontier. This makes it the indispensable land bridge to Southeast Asia and the physical foundation of India’s…
Introduction: A Relationship Born of Liberation Among all of India’s neighbours, Bangladesh is unique: it is the one country India helped to bring into existence. The two share a 4,096 km border—India’s longest with any nation—along with a common language, culture and the shared memory of the 1971 Liberation War (‘Muktijuddho’). At its best, the…
Introduction: The Closest and Most Complicated Neighbour No neighbour is closer to India—by blood, faith and geography—than Nepal. The two share an open border, a common Hindu-Buddhist civilizational heritage, and a bond so intimate it is captured in the phrase ‘Roti-Beti ka Rishta’ (a relationship of bread and marriage). Families straddle the frontier; Nepali Gorkhas…
Introduction: The Model Neighbour If India’s neighbourhood policy has a success story, it is Bhutan. Amid a periphery marked by suspicion, disputes and Chinese inroads, the India–Bhutan relationship stands out as remarkably stable, warm and free of serious friction. The two are often described as ‘all-weather friends’. This closeness rests on an unusual combination: deep…
Introduction No dimension of India’s foreign policy is as consequential—or as difficult—as its relationship with its immediate neighbours. India sits at the geographical and civilizational core of South Asia, sharing land or maritime boundaries with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Afghanistan. Its size, population, economy and central location mean…
Understanding the Idea: What is a Middle Power? International politics is not a society of equals. States sit in an unwritten hierarchy of power. At the top are the great powers (or superpowers) with global military and economic reach. At the bottom are small powers with limited influence beyond their borders. Between these two lie…
Introduction Foreign policy is the organised expression of a nation’s national interest in its dealings with the outside world. For India, it is not an accident of 1947 but the product of a long civilisational continuity — a blend of ancient statecraft, the experience of colonial subjugation, the idealism of the freedom struggle, and the…
Why do we Study Theory in International Relations? International Relations (IR) is the study of how nation-states, international institutions, and non-state actors interact within a system that has no single authority above them. Because the same event — a war, a treaty, a trade deal — can be explained in radically different ways, we need…
