The Jaishankar-Modi Doctrine: Issues on its Sustainability
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
A decade of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dispensation in New Delhi, observers of international politics have noticed a gradual, though accelerating shift in not only India’s international stature, but also in its posture.
Non-alignment has in many ways remained an implicit feature of Indian foreign policy even in the decades since the end of the Cold War. However, writes Sarjan Shah (an alumnus of London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard) “with our legacy of security cooperation with the Soviet Union being transferred to the new Russian Federation, while our diaspora and economic linkages with the West continued to strengthen, the logic of India’s relationships on two ends of the geopolitical spectrum has continued to be questioned. Never more so than since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022."
Non-alignment’ being replaced by ‘multi-alignment
While many have seen more continuity than change in this stance under PM Modi, “some of India’s recent geopolitical engagements have displayed perhaps the creation of a new ‘Jaishankar-Modi Doctrine’.”
Jaishankar’s focus on multi-alignment: According to External affairs minister, ‘A multi-polar world requires a multi-vector strategy and multi-alignment by India …’, ‘non-alignment’ is being replaced by ‘multi-alignment’. During his most recent visit to the US, Shah notes “Jaishankar seemed to explicitly lay out a new vision for our engagement with the world. When pressed during a long format interaction on how India could hope to be all things to all people, Jaishankar quipped that we intended to be ourselves to all people. What he meant was, we don’t merely have interests, we also have values, and both will matter in how we deal with countries and situations.”
A forward-looking view on global engagement: Perhaps "the key distinction between non-alignment then and multi-alignment now is not about whether India is absolutely closer to or less close to any particular nation or group of nations, but instead about how India now interacts with all nations. As opposed to wanting to keep our heads down, hoping that no geopolitical event batters us, India now actively formulates a forward-looking view on global engagement, and pursues outcomes in the national interest. It is signalling a new intensity of effort and the availability of capacity to be leveraged to generate such outcomes. It is saying, we are here to play.”
The test for the doctrine: The India-Russia-Iran-Israel-United States-Canada equation explains the Jaishankar-Modi doctrine. The key test, according to Shah “is whether India is using its newfound elbow room to pursue naked interest, or whether there is what the doctrine says there should be — a moral stance as well as a rational one…..This test might end up being applied when push comes to shove, and the emergent multi-polarity collapses into a new form of bi-polarity, or a Cold War 2.0. Given that the Jaishankar-Modi Doctrine seems to allow for deep partnerships with nations along either common interests, or common values, or both, yet seems to eschew explicit alliances, there may come a time when India’s hand is forced……”
