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Tag Archives: International Relations

International Relations


Pratip Chattopadhyay
DOMESTIC ROOTS OF INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY AND MARXIST POLITICAL PARTIES: EXPERIENCES OF UF GOVERNMENT (1996-98) AND UPA GOVERNMENT (2004-09)
2021

As India’s influence in global politics increases, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of books on Indian foreign policy. Increasingly, one sees more books and articles based on India’s archives. However, the impact of India’s domestic politics on the formulation of foreign policy remains an under-researched area.


Reviewed by: Uma Purushothaman

Rajiv Bhatia
INDIA-AFRICA RELATIONS: CHANGING HORIZONS
2022

he publication of two important books on India-Africa relations in early 2022 is a striking event. The authors are Foreign Service Africanists with multiple assignments on the Continent. They complement each other rather well.Rajiv Bhatia addresses the wide historical canvas, and a range of political and other connections.


Reviewed by: Kishan S Rana

Mohd. Shahzad
PROBLEMS OF REFUGEE IN SOUTH ASIA: A STUDY OF AFGHAN AND SRI LANKAN TAMIL REFUGEES IN INDIA
2020

Euriphides once remarked, ‘There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land.’ It does not augur well for today’s modern civilized world that a whopping number of people are born and die in refugee camps, and millions of people each year are forced to leave their countries and seek refuge in other countries, while many others are displaced within their own countries.


Reviewed by: Abidullah Baba

Shail Mayaram
THE SECRET LIFE OF ANOTHER INDIAN NATIONALISM: TRANSITIONS FROM THE PAX BRITANNICA TO THE PAX AMERICANA
2022

Eric Hobsbawm in the introduction to Nations and Nationalism since 1780 notes that although the idea of nationalism is constructed chiefly from above, it needs to be studied from below as this is where it takes root and is most powerful and capricious. Shail Mayaram’s new book The Secret Life of anOther Indian Nationalism: Transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana is a sincere attempt in this direction. 


Reviewed by: Amol Saghar

Anirudh Suri
THE GREAT TECH GAME: SHAPING GEOPOLITICS AND THE DESTINIES OF NATIONS
2022

The Great Tech Game comes with a promise to explain one of the pre-eminent challenges of our times, which concerns the rapid growth in the technological domain and its implications for the economic and strategic sectors in countries across the world. The fact that a book on geopolitics is written around the theme of technology underscores the high stakes now attached to the gadgets and algorithms that were once dismissed as a domain for ‘geeks and freaks’.


Reviewed by: Aasim Khan

Ondřej Filipec
THE ISLAMIC STATE: FROM TERRORISM TO TOTALITARIAN INSURGENCY
2020

The rise of the Islamic State—variously known as ISIS, ISIL, IS, Da’esh—represents a unique occurrence within the burgeoning global jihadist movement. It is perhaps for the first time in modern history that an extremist group has succeeded in conquering swathes of territory as vast in size as present day United Kingdom, with several million inhabitants, and transformed itself into a quasi-state like entity, thereby succeeding in establishing a unique political system representing the typical attributes of a totalitarian regime…


Reviewed by: Abidullah Baba

E. Sridharan
EASTWARD HO? INDIA’S RELATIONS WITH THE INDO-PACIFIC
2021

Indo-Pacific (comprising the maritime space extending to the Indian Ocean, the littorals of East Asia and to the western Pacific Ocean[1]) can be regarded as the new buzzword in international affairs. The renewed focus of the United States towards Indo-Pacific and the ‘pivot to Asia’ call adds strength to this concept. Freedom of navigation and safety of the movement of cargos and resources through the sea lanes of communication are vital for maintaining peace and order in the global system. Most of the trade and resources flow through sea routes and keeping them safe and accessible to all is an important requirement…


Reviewed by: Gunjan Singh

Sathnam Sanghera
EMPIRELAND: HOW IMPERIALISM HAS SHAPED MODERN BRITAIN
2021

This an extremely readable book written by a British national whose Sikh and Indian roots draw him back to write not about the country of his parents’ origin (India), but his own country, Britain. In that sense, this book is distinct as it does not focus on the former colony as most books and academic works, especially in the field of postcolonial studies tend to do. It looks at the lingering after-effects of colonialism on a former colonial power like Britain itself. What emerges is an interestingly written account of Britain as a nation that held sway over a vast empire upon which a once fabled sun never set…


Reviewed by: Amir Ali

Vipul Dutta
MAKING OFFICERS OUT OF GENTLEMEN: MILITARY INSTITUTION-BUILDING IN INDIA, C. 1900-1960
2021

Vipul Dutta is Assistant Professor of History at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, where he combines research and teaching interests in South Asian diplomatic, military, and economic history of the twentieth century. The book is an outcome of his doctorate from King’s College London.In his dissertation, Dutta set out to plug the gap in knowledge in India’s civil-military relations between the demands for Indianization, or the displacement of British officers with Indian officers in the army, and the institutional development in terms of training institutions such demands entailed. Whereas there is enough spotlight on the former, with the contribution of stalwarts from the freedom struggle like Motilal Nehru and Jinnah finding mention…


Reviewed by: Ali Ahmed

Nyla Ali Khan
EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN CONFLICT ZONES: TRANSFORMING, NOT TRANSMITTING, TRAUMA
2021

Professor Nyla Khan’s newest book is a call to action: action formulated in a deep consciousness of understanding and caring. Composed out of her own experience and care for the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir and their trauma of insurgency and of the new, native nationalism of India…


Reviewed by: Stephen Morrow

Hiroshi Hirabayashi. Translated from the original Japanese by Prem Motwani
INDIA: THE LAST SUPER POWER
2021

The very title of the book—India: The Last Super Power–is intriguing. It is one of the few works by a foreigner that places India at the centre of global politics. Hiroshi Hirabayashi, a veteran Japanese diplomat, is highly hopeful of India joining the existing list of leading world powers: US, Russia and China. Once it joins…


Reviewed by: N Manoharan

Uma Pradhan
SIMULTANEOUS IDENTITIES: LANGUAGE, EDUCATION AND THE NEPALI NATION
2020

Simultaneous Identities: Language, Education and the Nepali Nation (2020) comes at a time when education stands at a critical juncture in South Asia. As educational inequalities become the centre of analyses in the post-pandemic world, this book reminds us of the need to build a comprehensive understanding of educational practices…


Reviewed by: Madhulika Sonkar

Amish Raj Mulmi
ALL ROADS LEAD NORTH: NEPAL’S TURN TO CHINA
2021

Amish Raj Mulmi’s All Roads Lead North: Nepal’s Turn to China is a fresh breeze. It is based on his extensive travels in Nepal, formal interviews, relaxed and spontaneous chats, and first-hand observations of geography and experiences at Nepal’s northern border during the travels. Yet, this reportage is not simply a travelogue…


Reviewed by: Prashant Kumar Singh

Rehman Sobhan
UNTRANQUIL RECOLLECTIONS: NATION BUILDING IN POST-LIBERATION BANGLADESH
2021

Economist and freedom fighter Rehman Sobhan is a unique personality who has helped shape the course of contemporary history in the subcontinent. A brilliant man and a friend and contemporary of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the second volume of his memoirs which deals with the early days of the founding of Bangladesh…


Reviewed by: Jayanta Roy Chowdhury

Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Translated from the original Pukhto by Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada. Foreword by Rajmohan Gandhi
THE FRONTIER GANDHI: MY LIFE AND STRUGGLE—THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN
2021

This is an autobiography of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan based on a 1983 text written by him in Pukhto.  An earlier 1969 account, also translated and published in English, was deemed incomplete by Bacha Khan and he therefore wrote a more complete account which is now available to a non-Pukhto knowing readership…


Reviewed by: TCA Raghavan

Antonia Settle
RISK AND THE RUPEE IN PAKISTAN’S NEW ECONOMY: FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND MONETARY CHANGE IN A FRONTIER MARKET
2020

The book under review examines financial inclusion and monetary change in Pakistan, where liberalization of money and markets was initiated in the last few decades. Pakistan had been a low-inflation economy until liberalization and had for many decades maintained both fixed exchange rates and fixed pricing. However…


Reviewed by: Rana Banerji

Asma Faiz
IN SEARCH OF LOST GLORY: SINDHI NATIONALISM IN PAKISTAN
2021

Asma Faiz’s excellent book on Sindhi nationalism fills a much needed gap on ethnicity and ethnic conflict in Pakistan. Works on ethnicity in Pakistan—both research articles and books—have focused on providing a more general outline of ethnic conflict and movements including that of Tahir Amin, Adeel Khan, Mehtab Ali Shah or have focused more…


Reviewed by: Farhan Hanif Siddiqi

Abdul Basit
HOSTILITY: A DIPLOMAT’S DIARY ON PAKISTAN INDIA RELATIONS
2021

Abdul Basit’s book consistently shows that he eschewed the role of an envoy during his assignment in India; instead, becoming a rigid zealot, he became a bone stuck in the throat of his government. An elected and secure government would have reassigned him quickly enough. That Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not do so was on account of Pakistan’s…


Reviewed by: Vivek Katju

N.S. Vinodh
A FORGOTTEN AMBASSADOR IN CAIRO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SYUD HOSSAIN
2021

Amid the forest of debates about the relations between history and biography one line of disputation stands out, that between the promoters and detractors of the Great Man Theory. Thomas Carlyle, the 19th century Scottish historian was its most well known promoter; he famously said that the history of the world is but the biography of great men…


Reviewed by: IP Khosla

Andrew B. Liu
TEA WAR: A HISTORY OF CAPITALISM IN CHINA AND INDIA
2020

In the nineteenth century, the Wuyi Mountains in northwest Fujian emerged as a key centre of China’s famed tea industry. Located in the mountain cliffs were more than a hundred factories producing a global commodity that had become integral to the country’s economic fortunes. The factories were maintained by merchants based in the market town of Chongan…


Reviewed by: Prashant Kidambi
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ISSN No. 0970-4175 (Print)