"The Evolution of India's Grand Strategy" by C. Raja Mohan,
On May 2, 2021 (8:30 am - 10:00 am, Eastern US Time), Professor C. Raja Mohan addressed the Mackinder Forum on "The Evolution of India's Grand Strategy."
ABSTRACT: India is moving away from its traditional identity as a leader of the non-aligned nations towards greater strategic cooperation with the West. Once a conscientious objector in the international sysem, India now claims a role in shaping the regional and global order, similar to the role of the British Raj in the East. In realizing that role, India must reduce the power gap with China by engaging in internal reform and building external coalitions.
BIOGRAPHY: Professor C. Raja Mohan is an Indian academic, foreign policy analyst and a leading columnist on international affairs. He is the Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Previously, he was the founding Director of Carnegie India, a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, among several other postions. From 2009-2010, he was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. He began his academic career at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.
Professor Mohan has a master's degree in Nuclear Physics and a Ph.D. in International Relations and he served as a member of India's National Security Advisory Board during 1998-2000 and 2004-06. He was awarded the highest French distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 2016.
His books include Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India's Foreign Policy (Palgrave, 2004), Impossible Allies: Nuclear India, United States and the Global Order (India Research Press, 2006); Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2012); and Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence (HarperCollins India, 2015).
READINGS:
1) "Remapping India's Geopolitics", Seminar, January 2018.
2) "A New Pivot to Asia", Foreign Policy, January 15, 2021.
3) "India Romances the West", Foreign Policy, March 19, 2021.