“Just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War The Ruse of the Empty City IMAGE CREDITS-FANDOM This is a story from the infamous Chinese classic, “Romance of the Three Kingdom” . In the story, the general Zhuge Liang of Shu kingdom, was in danger of being besieged by the rival Wei kingdom in his fortress at Xicheng. His own forces were very far away to stop this invasion. Zhuge Liang, in order to counter this situation,...

India’s foreign policy stands at a turning point assisted by a rapidly shifting global order and the complex dynamics of domestic politics. For decades, India has pursued a foreign policy rooted in strategic autonomy engaging with global powers without full alignment, prioritising economic partnerships and asserting its interests through forums such as the G20, BRICS, the Quad and more. Yet, despite these efforts, there is growing debate among policymakers and civil society about whether...

The colonial subjugation faced by India has created a deep-seated imperative to protect sovereignty and end external domination in all forms including ideological (Chatterjee, 1993). Non-alignment was one such assertion where India chose to remain outside the framework of ideological bipolarity created in the 1960s in the form of Cold War (Ganguly, 2017). The recalibration of foreign policy instruments are a reflection of evolving power structures, making India’s quest for full political and...