HOW TO PLAY THE GREAT NEW GAME
Indrani Bagchi
The Times of India, December 26, 2009
Success can be a mixed blessing. It brings money, power and glory; but it also brings with it envy if not enmity, scrutiny, and the burden of expectation. Relationships change; they are often rooted less in idealism , more in opportunism. You tend to walk differently, talk differently, even smile differently. There's a danger of often-unarticulated tensions subtly but significantly redefining old friendships. Your new friends, you cannot be sure of - will they stand by you when the chips are down? As for those you do not trust, those who you do not believe have your best interests at heart, you tend to tread gently around them, especially if they're more powerful than you; meanwhile, you wonder if you should seek a powerful ally. Life is less black-and-white, and a lot less constant . The old certainties are replaced by new, complex variables. How you negotiate the maelstrom of change will decide whether you get to play in the Champions League, or in the Europa League.
Indrani Bagchi
The Times of India, December 26, 2009
Success can be a mixed blessing. It brings money, power and glory; but it also brings with it envy if not enmity, scrutiny, and the burden of expectation. Relationships change; they are often rooted less in idealism , more in opportunism. You tend to walk differently, talk differently, even smile differently. There's a danger of often-unarticulated tensions subtly but significantly redefining old friendships. Your new friends, you cannot be sure of - will they stand by you when the chips are down? As for those you do not trust, those who you do not believe have your best interests at heart, you tend to tread gently around them, especially if they're more powerful than you; meanwhile, you wonder if you should seek a powerful ally. Life is less black-and-white, and a lot less constant . The old certainties are replaced by new, complex variables. How you negotiate the maelstrom of change will decide whether you get to play in the Champions League, or in the Europa League.
And so it is with India. The world was once an easier, more familiar place. Through the Cold War years, India rarely, if ever, strayed from its basic foreign policy template: Non-alignment . It had few interests (beyond its timeless favourites, Kashmir and Pakistan), and even fewer choices. As a French diplomat said, "We used to refer to India as the 'porcupine' . You stayed in the cave and ventured out occasionally. If anyone hissed 'Kashmir' , the prickles would be out and you would scurry back into your cave. You are now coming out, but slowly."
After two decades of economic growth, India finds itself , willy-nilly , in the vortex of dizzying change. Its interests have grown in many new directions, too numerous to count - driven in part by its recently-acquired status as an emerging superpower. The game has become more complex: if India's earlier geo-political manoeuvres were akin to checkers, they now resemble poker where the hand keeps changing, the stakes are higher, and it's absolutely essential to think several moves ahead so as not to lag behind the competition.
Does India have what it takes to play the new game? As the first "noughties" decade of the 21st century draws to an end, India feels less secure, even as it's being called upon to make deft strategic decisions in a rapidly-morphing world it is plainly illequipped for.
As a top policymaker observed, "We are entering an uncertain phase where multiple crises are coming at us, intersecting and reinforcing each other." This means India's friends and enemies change with each new point of departure. Its geopolitical choices, therefore , are no longer binary. John Maynard Keynes said, "When the facts change, I change my mind" - and that could well be India's new mantra.
(...) [artículo aquí]
(...) [artículo aquí]
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment