3. Strategically there are few questions that India needs to constantly engage with:

♤ How to manage the contentious relationship with Pakistan?

♤ How does India respond to the rise of China?

♤ What would be the shape of India’s relationship with the United States in the coming

years?

♤ How to reshape the architecture of global governance (UN, IMF and World Bank, WTO etc.)?

♤ How to deal with the menace of terrorism as well as emerging challenges such as climate change?

We shall be looking into the ideas and concepts discussed in this lectures in greater detail in the context of specific relations and organisations.

Space Intentionally Left Blank

3. Let Us Address A Key Question

3.1. Non-Alignment: Relevance of the Idea and the Movement

The Essay Paper of the Civil Services Mains Examination 2017 required the aspirants to write an essay on the topic “Has the Non- Alignment Movement (NAM) lost its relevance in a multi- polar world?” This, perhaps, is a testimony to the significance of the Non Aligned Movement, as it remains a key issue in understanding India’s Foreign Policy trajectory.

Started in 1961, NAM now has 120 members. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations and 55% of the world population. In the Cold war period its aim was to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" and "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics. In the years since the Cold War's end, it has focused on developing multilateral ties and connections as well as unity among the developing nations of the world, especially those within the Global South.

In contemporary times the questions on the relevance of NAM acquired salience since the end of Cold war. The 17th Summit of the NAM held in September 2016 in Margarita, Venezuela, was marked by the absence of representation at the head of government level from India. This had happened only once before i.e. in 1979 when the then caretaker Prime Minister Mr. Charan Singh could not participate in the Havana Summit of the NAM. Many view this as the distancing of India from NAM.