Policy Watch: India’s Place in the World – May 2025

This issue of Policy Watch is on the theme India’s Place in the World. Earlier in this month, we witnessed armed conflict between India and Pakistan, when India responded to the terrorist attack at Pahalgam in which 26 civilians were killed on 22 April 2025. The first article is on this, by Thiru P. Chidambaram, veteran Congress leader and former Finance Minister and Home Minister of India, which appeared in the Indian Express. The second article is by Farah Jan, an International Relations Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and a scholar of nuclear rivalries, especially between India and Pakistan, which appeared in The Converation. The article is titled “India Pakistan ceasefire shouldn’t disguise the fact that norms have changed in South Asia, making future de-escalation much harder.” She argues that diminished great power (read the US) diplomacy and the advent of multi-domain warfare that spans conventional military, cyber and information spheres simultaneously, and the mismatch between the nuclear doctrines of Pakistan and India, has made this latest flare-up a dangerous turning point.

The third article by Sunil Ahlawat is about the nuts and bolts – or rather jets and missiles – with an historical narrative of how these systems were developed around the world and how the Western powers had an edge in these, till very recently. The article, first published in the Eurasian Times, makes the point that since 2020, the China has made strides in developing advanced combat jets with matching beyond the visual range (BVR) missile systems. However, till 6th May 2025, the Chinese jet fighters and missile systems were not combat-tested, and this conflict provide them that opportunity. The writer concludes, perhaps rather dramatically that ´This might be the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century’.

Next, we reproduce two tables comparing the relative military strengths of India with Pakistan and India with China. These have been taken from Global Firepower. The next article is by Prof Somnath Ghosh, Senior Honorary Visiting Fellow of RGICS, who did his PhD at the School of International Studies of the JNU. He looks at the recent conflict with Pakistan and its longer-term implications, including the impact on India’s relations with Afghanistan. He also looks at how the relatopnship with Bangladesh has worsened significantly over the last year and its consequences. In this, he also brings in the role of India’s relations with Myanmar. In all of this, the loomimg role fo China is highlighted.