Emerging convergence Between India's foreign policy and social constructivism

Abstract

The focus of the study is to understand the existing theories of foreign policy in the light of social constructivism. The striking theories like realism, neo-realism and neoliberalism appear to be universal in nature. But the premises on which these theories have been built up are a matter of scholarly interest. It requires critical analysis before adaptation and application in a raising country like India. As it is very well known that there is a paradigm shift in the conventional understanding of power in international relation. The traditional measures of power such as military, economy and natural resources are no longer the only significant aspects of power in the multi-polar world. In case of India it is same, the experts of foreign policy have given ample of importance to strategic advantages, economic dynamism, political stability, military capacity, nuclear space and missile programme, keeping in view the central tenets of realism and intending to make India a great power. Besides the realistic point of view India’s foreign policy must define where the real power remains. It tries to be the leader of the world. It is very known that India has still to go very long way. It is suffering from laxity of infrastructure, transport, communication, education health etc. we have large number of billionaires in India and at the same time we have just less than 260 million people living below poverty line. Engineers and scientists in India are second largest in the world, but we have also large number of children who have never seen the premises of school1. So the point is here that the transformation of India in 21st century is insufficient in many ways. Ample of attention needs to be given to some of the attributes like attitude, cultures, ideas, identity and quality apart from economic and military strength. And the aggregated effect of all these attributes are our real power and that is called soft power.