joined the economic liberalization bandwagon later than most Third World countries of similar significance. However, it has long been a participant in international bodies. New ways of defining its role and its very self in terms of the international and regional realms are necessary. For example, will India continue to abide by its Non-alignment principle, and does its foreign policy still develop according to two traditional concepts: domestic self-sufficiency and national security? A policy of strategic restraint is urged upon the government by many Indian intellectuals:
The core values of democracy, secularism, federalism and national integration provide the strategic and political underpinnings to our security and defense policy goals. These objectives would, in turn get shaped by our vital national interest to strive for and sustain durable peace and security within the country and region to pursue rapid socio-economic development. Thus a strategic doctrine anchored to prevention of war, regular as well as irregular, and removal of threat of conflict through pursuit of a co-operative rather than a competitive paradigm of inter-state security should best serve our national interests and objectives.
In the post-Cold War era, and during part of it, India has seen itself threatened by variously the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of which often used India and/or Pakistan as a pawn during the Cold War. Many contend that the development and testing of nuclear weapons, both by India and Pakistan, is the direct result of actions by the two superpowers embroiled in the Cold War. At a considerable cost to the economy of each nation, they have both moved toward gaining status as a member of the international nuclear war club. While this has prompted the U.S. to see the region as one of the most likely to engage in a nuclear conflict, India continues to assert, much like the U.S. and Russia did for years during the Cold War...