Model answer & approach
- India has adopted multi-alignment to fulfill its core values and interests in International relations. Discuss. (Answer in 250 words)
Introduction
Multi-alignment is India's answer to a world with several centres of power and no reliable guarantor. It replaces the abstention of non-alignment with simultaneous, issue-based partnerships, while serving the same underlying value of strategic autonomy.
Body
1. The doctrine stated: Jaishankar's The India Way (2020) puts it plainly — engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia and bring Japan into play — building on the argument of NonAlignment 2.0 (2012).
2. The pivot: the civil nuclear agreement of 2005 and the NSG waiver of 2008 ended India's nuclear isolation and made simultaneous partnerships technically possible.
3. Alignment without alliance: LEMOA (2016), COMCASA (2018), BECA (2020), Major Defence Partner status and iCET (2022) deliver American capability without a treaty obligation to fight.
4. Continuity with Russia: annual summits, the S-400 contract of 2018 and discounted crude after 2022 preserve a supplier and a hedge against a Russia-China condominium.
5. Presence inside rival forums: SCO membership since 2017 alongside China and Pakistan, and an expanded BRICS, sit beside the Quad, IPEF and the corridor announced in 2023.
6. A claim to represent others: the Voice of Global South summits and the African Union's admission to the G20 at New Delhi in 2023 give the strategy a normative content beyond bargaining.
7. The critique: it offers no security guarantee, since no partner fought at Galwan in 2020, and it is tested whenever a power demands exclusivity, as with secondary tariffs over Russian oil in 2025.
Conclusion
Multi-alignment is a bargaining posture rather than a doctrine of neutrality — leverage in every camp and dependence on none. It works only for as long as India's economic and military weight makes it worth courting.
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