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Indian Foreign Affairs Journal

Published in Association with Association of Indian Diplomats

Current Volume: 20 (2025 )

ISSN: 0973-3248

e-ISSN: 2229-5372

Periodicity: Quarterly

Month(s) of Publication: March, June, September & December

Subject: Political Science & International Affairs

DOI: 10.32381/IFAJ

300

Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, a peer reviewed quarterly publication of the Association of Indian Diplomats, attempts to provide an intellectually stimulating forum for the examination of various aspects of India's Foreign Policy. This Examination is undertaken by the experienced decision-makers, serious scholars, and seasoned analysts.

EBSCO
ProQuest
Genamics (JournalSeek)
Indian Citation Index (ICI)

 

Managing Editor
Achal Malhotra

Ambassador (Retd.) and Member,
Executive Committee, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi.


Editor
Abdul Nafey

Professor (Retd.) School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi


Copy Editor
Preeti Singh

Ex-Officio Members
T. C. A. Raghavan

Ambassador (Retd.) and President, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi


Amarendra Khatua

Ambassador (Retd.) and Vice President, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi


Anil Trigunayat

Ambassador (Retd.) and Secretary, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi


A.K Malhotra

Ambassador (Retd.) and Treasurer, Association of Indian Diplomats, New Delhi


Nominated Members
Sachin Chaturvedi

Director General,Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi


Sanjay Chaturvedi

Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh


Neelam Deo

Former Director, 'Gateway House' Indian Council on Global Relations, Mumbai.


Darvesh Gopal

Former Professor of Political Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi


Arvind Gupta

Director, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi


Rajat Kathuria

Director & Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi


G. Gopa Kumar

Vice Chancellor, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod.


Jayant Prasad

Former Director General, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.


P. K. Singh

Former Director, United Services Institution of India, New Delhi.


Nalin Surie

Former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi.


International Advisers
David M. Malone

Rector of the United Nations University & Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Tokyo, Japan.


Ong Keng Yong

Executive Deputy Chairman, Director, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.


 T.V. Paul

James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.


Elizabeth Sidiropoulose

National Director, South African Institute of International Affairs, Braamfontein, South Africa.


Peter N Varghese

Chancellor, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.


Research Associate
Hoimi Mukherjee

Volume 20 Issue 3 , (Jul- to Sep-2025)

From the Editors’ Desk

By: ..

Page No : i-iv

Read Now

Self-Reliance in Defence: From Pragmatic Restraint to Strategic Autonomy

By: Amit Cowshish

Page No : 169-185

Abstract
Resource constraints and commitment to Non-Alignment historically explain India’s limited expenditure on defence. Moreover, it remained so despite the country’s periodic wars with hostile neighbours in 1962, 1965, and 1971. The signing of the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in 1971 was an important landmark in India’s quest for self-reliance. It marked the start of the co-production and co-development of varied defence platforms, including through Transfer of Technology (ToT). It is estimated that more than 200 industrial units in India currently have ties with the Russian defence industry for local manufacturing, repair, and maintenance of Russian-origin equipment. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought home the hard reality of import dependence and geopolitical uncertainty, underscoring the urgent imperative of self-reliance in defence procurement. An important path suggested was to gradually raise the indigenous component in defence procurement. The Kargil war of 1999 came as a reality check. For the past five decades, the country had more or less followed the same lackadaisical policies concerning defence production, Research and Development (R&D), planning, and resource allocation, citing the same reasons such as economic constraints, anodyne threat perceptions, and politicobureaucratic procrastination. Defence production was in the hands of public-sector companies, and defence-related R&D suffered from a lack of funding.The Kargil war was a wake-up call. Concerted policy measures were taken towards raising the level of ‘self-reliance’ in defence procurement in the years following the Kargil war. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his maiden Independence Day speech on August 15, 2014, from the ramparts of historic Red Fort in Delhi, gave a call for ‘Make in India’. Since then, ‘Atmanirbharta’ has become the mantra underlying various defence policy initiatives, as in many other sectors of the Indian economy. ‘Atmanirbharta’ in defence production is deemed a necessary prerequisite for exercising strategic autonomy. In the true sense of the term, self-reliance in defence implies the ability to use one’s own resources and capabilities to design and develop cutting edge technologies, remain ahead of one’s adversaries in technological advancement and innovation, access raw materials required for defence production, and harness these resources to manufacture state-of-the-art equipment, platforms and weapon systems, including critical components like aeroengines. It also implies ensuring an uninterrupted supply of rare earth elements and critical minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and titanium, all of which are essential for the manufacture of advanced defense systems. The changing nature of warfare, and rapidly increasing role of AI-driven autonomous weapon systems, or ‘killer robots’, has added a new dimension to India’s quest for self-reliance in defence. Judged by this yardstick, there are several notable gains; but import dependence on critical components also remains. It means, there is a lot of catching up to be done. Self-reliance remains a long term project. It is not simply a function of ensuring local manufacturing of defence equipment and maximising the IC in locally manufactured products, if such manufacturing is critically dependent on the import of raw materials, components, assemblies, or technologies. In the end, it is investment in R&D which holds the key to self-reliance in design and the development of major military platforms and weapons which, in turn, guarantees  some measure of strategic autonomy.

Author
Amit Cowshish, Ex-Financial Advisor (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
 

DOI : https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.1

Price: 251

India’s Trajectory in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO): Following the ‘SECURE’ Path

By: Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat

Page No : 186-202

Abstract
India joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a member in 2017, after years of deliberation while maintaining Observer status. The growth of the SCO from a border dispute resolving mechanism, formed in 1996 as the ‘Shanghai Five’, to a consequential and expanding geo-strategic organisation has to be analysed in the evolving global scenario. For India, the SCO presents both a platform of strategic opportunities and a space of complex geopolitical contestations. India’s strategic posture within the SCO has undergone a significant transformation since its entry as a full member in 2017. No longer content with passive participation, India has adopted a more assertive and principled role in shaping the organisation’s agenda. The journey of India in SCO, following the ‘SECURE’ vision and, thereafter, the process of integration and the driving the agenda is the mainstay of this essay.

Author
Ambassador (Retd.) Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat was India’s first National Coordinator for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) when India joined the SCO as a full Member State, she helmed the newly established SCO Division, in the Ministry of External Affairs, from 2017 to 2019. She has served as High Commissioner of India in the Republic of Cyprus and as Ambassador of India to Turkmenistan.
 

DOI : https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.2

Price: 251

The Braided Narrative of the Canada-India Relationship

By: Abdul Nafey

Page No : 203-223

Abstract
Canada and India have been working to ‘reset’ their bilateral ties. They agreed upon a ‘new roadmap’ a year ago. The two sides have admittedly made more progress on the ‘new roadmap’ in the last one year than they did in the last two decades combined. What has happened? For some two years, the relationship between the two countries was on a downward spiral. Who is Mike Carney, and why does he find India a potential partner in the unstable, and largely unpredictable, world order? It is a ‘hinge moment’ in Canada’s diplomatic history. The Liberal International Order (LIO), set up after World War II, is gone. In Canada’s worldview, it is the moment of ‘rupture’, not ‘transition’, of the global order. The age of great power arbitrariness has returned. Great powers are out to use integration as a weapon, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, and supply chains as vulnerabilities. What is likely to be replaced is issue-specific and interest-based coalitions of likeminded countries — more as a plurilateral rather than some new multilateral arrangement. There is great mutual interest for middle powers, like Canada and India, to collaborate in this situation for a rule-based order. Bilateral relations have swiftly progressed beyond the conventional areas of trade, immigration, and nuclear cooperation. Cooperation in critical minerals, AI, investment, high technology collaboration, higher education, space, defence, and maritime security are their new calling. The vision of Viksit Bharat and Build Canada Strong are found to be aligned. Canada claims it has ‘what the world wants’. On its part, India wants to make it the ‘New Level Partnership’. This time, it could really be different as two countries shrug off the baggage of the past half-a-century, and move forward.

Author
Abdul Nafey is Professor of Canadian Studies. He was formerly at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 

DOI : https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.3

Price: 251

Critical Minerals and India: LAC Renewable Energy Shift

By: Sanjay Kumar Pradhan

Page No : 224-240

Abstract
Renewable energy is vital for global low-carbon transition and climate change mitigation; yet its expansion largely depends on a secured supply of critical mineral resources and supply chain resilience. Taking consideration of this vital aspect, collaboration between India and the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region counts as a strategic pathway to address this necessity. India aims to reinforce its renewable footprint in the LAC markets, while LAC states seek to leverage their rich mineral resources while expanding domestic renewable energy production capacity. However, both structural and operational challenges limit India- LAC’s deeper engagement. This essay critically examines India-LAC cooperation in the critical minerals used in the renewable sectors, highlighting opportunities and constraints, and strategies to enhance partnerships, thereby assisting renewable energy deployment for a concrete enforcement of the energy transition process.

Author
Sanjay Kumar Pradhan is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of International Relations, School of Liberal Studies, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar.
 

DOI : https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.4

Price: 251

Opinions

By: Rajiv Bhatia , Anil K. Wadhwa , Chintamani Mahapatra

Page No : 241-253

Authors
Rajiv Bhatia is a Distinguished Fellow at Gateway House, and a former Ambassador who has served in several Indian Ocean capitals. He is a regular columnist, public speaker, and author who has published three books on India’s foreign policy, namely India in Global Affairs (KW, 2015), India-Myanmar Relations: Changing Contours (Routledge, 2016), and India-Africa Relations: Changing Horizons (Routledge, 2022).

Anil K. Wadhwa is a former Ambassador who has held several diplomatic assignments including in China. He is a Distinguished Fellow at Vivekanand International Foundation. A prolific writer, he has contributed a number of articles on foreign policy, disarmament and international security.

Chintamani Mahapatra is Founder Chairperson, Kalinga Institute of Indo-pacific Studies; Editor, India Quarterly; and former Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
 

Price: 251

Book Reviews
The Silent Enemy: Non-Traditional Challenges to National Security, Arvind Gupta and Rajesh Singh, Blue Ink Pvt. Ltd, 2025, Pages 442, ISBN9789365479485, Price Rs. 899

By: Satish Kumar

Page No : 254-256

Author
Satish Kumar
is Professor of Political Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi.

Price: 251

Redlines Redrawn: Operation Sindoor and India’s New Normal by Maj Gen Bipin Bakshi, Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar, Amb Anil Trigunayat, Brig Akhelesh Bhargava, Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd., 2026, 372 pages, 995 rupees

By: R. C. Patial

Page No : 257-261

Author
Col R.C. Patial, SM, FRGS, PhD, is a retired Infantry officer of 11 GR. He possesses the unique experience of serving in active CI Ops across the country and in Sri Lanka. He has served with the NSCS as a Senior Defence Specialist and in NTRO as OSINT Chief Editor. He is a regular writer on military matters, mountaineering, travelogues and international relations. The veteran is a keen mountaineer and a trekker. He is currently the Principal of Amity Indian Military College, Manesar.

Price: 251

Documents
Joint Statement by Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Modi

By: ..

Page No : 262-276

Price: 251

List of Outcomes: Visit of Prime Minister of Canada to India (February 27 – March 02, 2026)

By: ..

Page No : 277-280

Price: 251

Instruction to the Author

The Indian Foreign Affairs Journal: is a quarterly publication, the first of its type in India. In the context of India emerging as an important player in international affairs, the challenges before its foreign policy have been growing. The issues involved in India's foreign policy call for a larger debate and discussion both within and outside the country. The journal aims to cater to the need to bring in various perspectives on these developments and present policy options to the decision-makers, analysts, and interest groups, in the country.

Manuscript Submission
Manuscripts and all editorial correspondence should be addressed to:
The Editor,
Indian Foreign Affairs Journal,
Sapru House, Barakhamba Road,
New Delhi - 110001,
E-mail: ifajournal@gmail.com

General Guidelines
1. The journal invites contributions on all aspects of India's foreign policy and relations to be considered for publication. Manuscripts and all editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Sapru House, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi - 110001, E-mail: ifajournal@gmail.com
2. Affiliations with, complete postal and e-mail address of contributors must be provided along with their papers.
3. Articles should be typed on one side of the paper (preferably A 4) and double-spaced throughout (even for quotations, notes, references), accompanied by a soft copy (identical to the hard copy) in IBM compatible format, preferably in MS Word. (However should the author so wish, the hard copy can be generated at the editorial office).
4. Notes and references should be numbered serially and presented at the end of the article.
5. Use British rather than American spellings.
6. Use double quotes throughout. Single quotes marks used within double quotes. Spellings of words in quotations should not be changed. Quotations of three or more lines should be indented with single space, with a line space above and below.
7. Use 'twentieth century', '1990s'. Spell out numbers from one to ninety-nine, 100 and above to remain in figures. However, for exact measurements use only figures (3 km, 9 per cent not %). Use thousands and millions, not lakhs and crores.
8. Use of italics and diacriticals should be minimized, but used consistently.
9. Tables and figures to be indicated by number separately (see Table 1), not by placement (see Table below). Present each table and figure on a separate sheet of paper, gathering them together at the end of the article.
10. A consolidated alphabetical list of all books, articles, essays, and theses referred to (including referred tables, graphs, and maps) should be provided at the end of the article in double-spacing. All referred articles, books, and theses should be listed in alphabetical order giving the author's surname first followed by initials.

Books: Single Author : Chomsky, Noam. 1999. The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Books:
Books:More than one Author: Berridge, G. R. and Alan James. 2001. A Dictionary of Diplomacy. New York: Palgrave.
Edited : Singh, Jasjit. ed. 1998. Nuclear India. New Delhi: Knowledge World and IDSA.

Articles:
In Book : Subrahmanyam, K. 1998. 'Indian Nuclear Policy – 1964-98', in Jasjit Singh. ed., Nuclear India, New Delhi: Knowledge World and IDSA, pp. 26-52.
In Journal : Dubey, Muchkund. 2005. 'The Twelfth SAARC Summit: Deeper Integration in South Asia', South Asian Survey, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 21-34.

Internet Sources:
Ganguly, Sumit, 'India's Foreign Policy Grows Up', World Policy Journal, vol. XX, no. 4, Winter 2003/04, [Online: web] Accessed 20 January 2006 URL: http://worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-4/ganguly.html
11. Book reviews must contain name of author/editor and the book reviewed, place of publication and publisher, year of publication, number of pages and price.

All the manuscripts submitted for the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal (IFAJ) should accompany a covering letter giving an undertaking following certain principles under Ethical Policy.

The cover letter should include a written statement from the author(s) that:

1. The manuscript is an original research work and has not been published elsewhere including open access at the internet.

2. The data used in the research has not been manipulated, fabricated, or in any other way misrepresented to support the conclusions.

3. No part of the text of the manuscript has been plagiarised.

4. The manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

5. The manuscript will not be submitted elsewhere for review while it is still under consideration for publication in the IFAJ.

The cover letter should also include an ethical statement disclosing any conflict of interest that may directly or indirectly impart bias to the research work. Conflict of interest most commonly arises from the source of funding, and therefore, the name(s) of funding agency must be mentioned in the cover letter. In case of no conflict of interest, please include the statement that “the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest”.

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