A Study Of India’s Non-Aligned Policy

Non-aligned policy is a unique phenomenon in the international relations since World War II. This policy is not only an important legacy of Indian diplomacy as the Indian government announced that it would still continue to adhere to the principles of Non-aligned policy. It is also a remarkable memory of the history in IR, since the Non-Aligned Movement breaks new ground in Cold War. The IR history in modern western has been alternate between alliance and war. India’s foreign policy has originated in the reflection on the rut. The Non-aligned policy will be interpreted as a reaction of the tragic memories of the colonial era of the country by historian, or the best position to obtain benefits or the product of Cold War by political scholars, or was attributed to inclusiveness and nonviolence in Indian traditional culture. These remarks are all make some sense. None could provide sufficient evidences because of IR theory and foreign policy was ruled by instrumental rationality.As the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, India’s non-aligned policy shows the morality and justice because of its political declaration with anti-imperialist and anti-colonial, against racism, the arms race, and nuclear weapons and the establishment of a just and rational international order. At the same time India’s foreign policy is full of hegemony as the dominator in South Asia.Geopolitical thinking from Kautilya is not mainstream in traditional Indian culture though it has been talked frequently. There is a likeness between india’s foreign policy and British colonists "Curzon doctrine" hegemonic ideology. Thus these unusual seems to be ignore or take for granted in instrumental rationality dimension. As individuals have instinct, emotions and beliefs, and reflective ability, nation which as a collection of individuals take the responsibility to protect its citizens, also responsible for the values and spiritual pursuit by them. It is hard to believe that a country is just an actor based on instrumental rationality, as there is no one hundred percent of the economic man in this world. It is unable to measure the depth of the India’s religious beliefs, cover the diversity of Indian civilization or predict the complexity of the india’s foreign affairs by instrumental rationality. This dissertation attempts to correct this mainstream model in IR theory or foreign policy.Nation is seeking for safety as facing a perpetual conflict world, for certainty as facing a value pluralistic world and for a sense of direction as facing a changing world. Based on the understanding above, nation is assumed as an instrumental rationality subject, a value rationality subject and a historical rationality subject. It seems like the individual person afford cost in transactions, has emotions in family relations and insist on his belief in religious activities.India’s non-aligned policy has been explained through Great Power Consciousness and Advanced Consciousness which reflects the changes base on historical rationality and the dissertation pointed out that the two concepts were experienced significant shift twice since India’s independence. The core of Great Power Consciousness shifted from the superiority of civilization to the military factor, then turned to economic factors as the center after the end of the cold war. Advanced Consciousness follows a similar logic. The discussion of value rationality is based on the concepts of secularism and sectarianism. The advantages of an integrated rationality were reflected in the explanation in the evolution of India’s non-aligned policy, especially in the abnormal phenomenon according to the change of these two kinds of rationality logic which cannot be explained by instrumental rationality. The response to security issues by instrumental rationality how affected by the logic changes of value rationality and historical rationality based on the conclusions of both chapters above in this dissertation.The interpretation framework of rationality has been verified in the attitude on india’s nuclear issue in the last chapter. Nuclear issue was selected as the test sample because India’s thinking on nuclear weapons deeply influenced by the principles of non-aligned policy. The two issues are isomorphic as they both followed the logic of three kinds of rationalities. Case test results show that the change of historical rationality and value rationality deeply influenced instrumental rationality views on the security issues. Particularly, the military turned in core elements of Great Power Consciousness resulted from moral nuclear policy to nuclear option policy in india and the influence of Sectarianism of value rationality eventually led india become a nuclear power. The dissertation concludes that India’s non-aligned policy is a combination of three rationalities in foreign affairs as a reflective results that should be paid more attention. Whether or not the title of the Non-aligned policy continued, many principles of the policy will be inherited within the changes and adjustments in India’s foreign affairs in the future.