Foreign policy: Not by Ahimsa alone

Conversations with some of India’s most distinguished and thoughtful diplomats over the past few months have left me with a distinct impression that modern Indian foreign policy has come to accept the use of force beyond our borders and shores as inconceivable. Whereas the use of military power to defend our land and maritime frontiers is accepted but deprecated, I find that India’s statesmen and women treat military power beyond that as unacceptable and even absurd.

This has to change. Without a new foreign policy idiom that combines both diplomacy and military power, India will find itself at a disadvantage

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