India's Role as a Central Super Power

Real Clear World wrote an in-depth article about reasons that India must play a central role in the U.S./Asia Strategy as it continues to evolve. In Obama’s strategy for international policy, he singles out India, China, Japan, and Pakistan as big players with which he must devote much focus and energy. The author of this feature, Jim Hoagland, says that because China and India are major players but have extremely different opinions on international cooperation.

The author writes that while there are no key elements of disagreement between Indian government and U.S. administration, there is also no real excitement about the relationship, as there had been several years ago. The article talks about the recent state dinner held on behalf of Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, but that there has been an air of ambivalence since then. High-ranking Indian officials have been reported as saying that they feel like the U.S. has dropped the ball in terms of reliance or focus on issue, which is a mistake as India continues to grow in power.

Because relations are so tense between India and China, the U.S. has found itself in a difficult position, as though having to choose between heavy alliace with either country. Says the article, “India has recently moved troops away from the Pakistan frontier while increasing deployments into border areas that China is claiming in pugnacious and offensive rhetoric.”

In uncertain times, it seems that India was relying on the U.S. to be an ally regarding the volatile relations that they have with Pakistan, and the looming threat of war, either nuclear or militarily. Because the expansion of Asian involvement in global development is inevitable, the author believes that the U.S. has made an egregious error by ignoring the power that India has and will continue to have globally.

To me, it would seem obvious that the U.S. should do more to secure their good relations with India instead of trying to work on their relationship with China, because India reflects the same positive democratic ideas that the U.S. holds so strong. By attaching themselves to China as an industrializing nation, I do not think that the U.S. is giving enough credit to India, and what the country is capable of. I have to agree with this author in saying that the U.S. must spend more time in vetting India and working to improve relations, because India can be an extremely valuable player, especially with Obama’s intent to move troops out of the middle east in the next several years. To give more power to China is underestimating India’s capabilities and evolving in the next several years and decades.