Critical Analysis of India's Foreign Policy Decision-Making Process

This report provides a critical analysis of Nicolas Blarel and Avinash Paliwal's article, "Opening the black box – The making of India’s foreign policy." The report examines the key arguments, which center on the need to understand India's complex domestic politics and bureaucratic apparatus in order to fully grasp its foreign policy. The analysis highlights the importance of the Prime Minister's Office and the influence of various actors, including media outlets, companies, NGOs, and think tanks. The report discusses the authors' methodologies, main arguments, and the article's structure, including its analysis of Narendra Modi's Shangri La speech. It critiques the article's limitations, such as the lack of clarity on India's policies in South Asia and the restricted analysis of democratic structures. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to address these gaps and promote a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between state, society, and foreign policy processes in India.

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Paper Title Capitalized and Centered
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

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Introduction
Most studies are missing the actual in-depth approach to the matter.
This study bridges the missing gap in between.
This research is a move towards bridging this division and promoting a more comprehensive
discussion between the FPA and Indian foreign policy systemic studies. The key argument in
this essay is that India is gradually seen as a significant world force, and the literature is
growing as to how India is coping with global problems such as climate change and nuclear
non-proliferation. India's external decision-making bodies, decision engines, ideas, and
philosophies, which form India's foreign relations from Independence, are now increasingly
being concentrated on. Traditionally, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was responsible for
international policy (Blarel & Paliwal, 2019). Yet India's foreign policy decision-making has
been profoundly affected by the emergence of private media outlets, big companies, the NGO
community, and independent think tanks since the middle of the 1990s. Furthermore, the
essay reflects instead on the amount of different international acts on real and human foreign
policy behavior and decisions. We claim that it is necessary to re-emphasize the excluded
domestic, national, and political variables in this empirical orientation. The article includes
particular choices in it, like fighting, negotiating an arrangement, entering an international
group, entering a dictatorship, responding to a conflict caused by a neighboring state,
implementing a nuclear arms project, delivering humanitarian relief to a specific country or
region, sanctioning a government and creating borders.
About The Author
Authors of the study are Nicolar Blarel and Avinash Paliwal
Both of them contributed in volume 18, 5 of India Review as guest editors

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Author Nicolar Blarel is currently placed at Universiteit Leiden as an assistant professor. He
was trained at Indiana University, and Centre de Recherches Internationales de Sciences Po.
Other well-known works of the author - The Evolution of India's Israel policy (OUP).
Author Avinash Paliwal is currently a lecturer of Diplomacy and Public Policy at the School
of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Other well-known books
authored by Avinash Paliwal is My Enemy's Enemy: India in Afghanistan from the Soviet
Invasion to the US Withdrawal.
Article's Key points
The article mainly consists of several previously researched articles and previously proven
ideas and a lot of primary sources.
It starts with PM Narendra Modi's Shangri La speech and moves to in-depth arguments and
discussions about the country's foreign policy.
The numerous articles include a systematic and empirically advanced interpretation of India's
foreign strategy through time, space, and subjects through the detailed research of unique
case studies. Where do most reports on Indian foreign policy still "black box" the actual
Indian international policy process? More precisely, several analyses neglect the Indian
foreign policy viewpoint as a consequence of the convoluted domestic policy and
bureaucratic machinery. There are various factors, such as a lack of participation in the
traditional International Relations scholarship, for such disciplines to focus on Western Case
Studies. The article mainly consists of points proven by several previous publications on the
foreign policy that is supported by India. Primarily it analyzes the Shangri La speech of prime
minister Narendra Modi. After that, the first part gave a quick summary and highlighted the
present shortcomings of the limited yet growing scholarly literature on the subject of Indian
foreign policy. Secondly, focused on FPA methodology, what we consider collectively as

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foreign policy, and the method of foreign policy creation in this specific matter is set out
conceptually. Thirdly, there is a discussion of the numerous approaches to this particular
topic, some of the main theoretical and scientific perspectives in Indian foreign policy.
Finally, the essay ends with recommendations about how the FPA-IFP discussion.
Methodologies
At first I read the article attentively.
Then I found out information on the authors and the publication of the article.
Then I noted down important information regarding my analysis. All this information was
concerning my critical analysis about the article.
Then I wrote down the Critical analysis of the article, Opening the black box – The
making of India’s foreign policy.
While conducting the critical analysis of the article Opening the black box – The making of
India’s foreign policy, primarily I read the whole article attentively. Then I searched the
internet about the information on the two authors, with that I also looked for information on
the publication of the special issue that had the article in it. Then I noted down different
information like key points, subsections, and main arguments of the article. These pieces of
information were essential for my critical analysis. After doing all these, I created the critical
analysis presentation.
Main Argument of the Article
There are several arguments presented thorough the whole article.
All of these arguments concerns India's foreign policy towards its neighboring countries and
US A and Russia.
There are a lot of thoughtful arguments that have been made throughout the article. However,
the leading case would be, although some of the current studies take domestic politics and
decision-making increasingly seriously. Also, decades of FPA work and other analytical

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methods that have been developed, evaluated and perfected to disaggregate further the
mechanisms and factors of the internal politics which can shape they have often ignored
foreign policy decisions. Such definitions, however, are not included in the Indian sense.
Thanks to India's diversity, determination, there are some other significant points in this
article, and challenges to argue, devise, and enforce foreign strategies in Indian leaders?
Whose methodological degree takes precedence? Who engages in the Indian foreign policy
process?
Main Idea of the Article
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Shangri La speech and its analysis.
Study of India's Foreign Policy
Analysis of the Foreign Policies
Some other key points about what the special issue is originally about.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Shangri La speech and its analysis: The talk of
Shangri La created a great deal of study of the effect on the world and South Asia in
particular of Modi's foreign policy. Similar to her rhetoric, her research, too, became
symbolic of India's review of foreign policy over the years. It highlighted the common belief
that Prime Ministers are India's strongest foreign policy arbitrators, that India's traditional
distrust and systemic inequality continue to fuel competition with China and Pakistan. It also
includes India's rapprochement with the United States is still a long way from becoming a
permanent strategic relationship.
Study of the Foreign Policy: The emergence of India also raises concerns about its strength.
While economically and politically strong, leadership on global problems needs to be
demonstrated. Increasingly powerful in the military sphere, its expansion of influence outside
its periphery remains limited. Electively inclusive and open to interacting with oppressive
governments, it has a genuine majority moment. In an excellent body of literature on Indian

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foreign policy, which spans period, topics, and geography, the problems were discussed.
Analysis of Foreign Policy: In this specific question, it is necessary to define the
philosophical parameters of foreign policy to facilitate dialog with a more comprehensive
FPA scholarship. Foreign policy has historically been characterized as external behavior, i.e.,
decisions and activities of States that have implications for non-governmental states or
political institutions.
Some other key points: There are several elements of the complete edition of this section.
Among the nine submissions to this particular issue, the emphasis is mainly on historical and
current behavior and decisions of terms of foreign policy, which are defined as confounding
and anomalous within these conventional theories of IR.
The Subsection of the Article
There are subsections that provides a proper in depth study over the topic.
These subsections also create the outline for the topic.
The subsections of the article are, a) PM Modi’s Shangri La speech and its analysis, b) then
the article study about the foreign policies that India is having in the recent times. c)
Furthermore, the article analyses these policies in the context of neighboring countries and
previously followed policies.
The analysis may also be split into a group, including the partnership between India and its
immediate neighbors and significant forces. The discrepancies in relations with Russia and
the steady progress of links with the US and rivalry with Pakistan and China, in and beyond
South Asia, are concerns historically key to Indian foreign affairs research. The difference
between domestic policies is, however, still obscured. Many government policies have
international consequences in one direction or another in the new sense of globalization. Such
findings have shown that the relations between national policy and foreign affairs are far
more nuanced than described. The FPA, therefore, provides a set of more concrete

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explanations for the various aspects of these ties between the domestic and the international,
such as the administration model, the organization's model of the operation, the study of the
leadership traits, the positions of the decision members, the impact of party choice, the shifts
in legislative-existent.
Criticizing the Article
An article of this stature might sometimes be expected to be over the stage of criticizing.
Although the article is well researched and very well presented. It still has some unavoidable
issues.
Most of this paper was unable to clarify the difference in India's policies, both with and
through South Asia. Such reports have usually taken more actions than examining the
dynamic interlinkages between the domestic political issues, bureaucrat turf wars, and
practical execution of policies, relying mostly on propaganda by the government and foreign
policy outcomes. Also, the analysis of democratic structures was restricted. Scholars, rather
than political scientists, sometimes make the breakthrough unless focused research was
carried out on India's international and security strategies. This lack of emphasis on foreign
policy decision-making in India, representing a conventional and counter-productive division
of political scientists and historians, is a subject for academic study. It could be exacerbated
by challenges in obtaining primary sources, restricted records, and undue emphasis on policy
production and implications. Ultimately, both stages of study are mostly overlapping rather
than mutually exclusive. There are no different theoretical categories to include mechanical
reasons for a decision on foreign policy. The heterogeneity in response to contextual
influences can, for example, be clarified by neoclassical realism and liberal internationalism.
comment on its main ideas and results and suggest future relevant research agenda
Other papers in this special issue illustrate the shortcomings of some FPA principles and
concepts when applied in multiple diverse political structures such as India's state,

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multiethnic and parliamentary politics. We provide both analytical, theoretical, and
philosophical perspectives that may aid in more extensive FPA discussions. Instead of
dismissing the Indian situation as an outlier. Additionally, these examples demonstrate that
theoretical developments come from India that can allow one to understand the study of the
implementation of foreign policies in a particular area of the world better, yet also offer
further insights into the entire field of foreign policy research.
Encouraging Further Research
Primarily the article recognizes the limitation of having proper researches and evidence that
are pre-existing on the context of the topic.
Not having proper research on the matter provides issues with implementing proper plans on
the matter of foreign policy of India.
As Narendra Modi becomes India’s prime minister, India is looking to strengthen their
foreign policy and encouraging studies to be conducted on the matter.
So the article ‘Opening the black box’ will surely help future research and agendas on the
matter.
These papers promote a more comprehensive study of the ties between the state and society
and their effect on foreign policy processes in India as well as in other cases. Besides, Blarel
and all the other researcher's publications say that the States, provinces, and regions have a
significant impact on India's foreign policy decisions explicitly and indirectly. For example,
Blarel introduces new causal structures that can affect national foreign policy discourse
through subnational actors. The author argues, in particular, that the multi-level character of
coalition-building in a federal and pluralistic political society such as India makes it essential
when planning foreign policies, that national parties take regional interests into account. Such
examples would thus demonstrate the advent of Indian theoretical developments that can not
only allow us to develop our comprehension of the studies of foreign policymaking in a

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specific part of the world. It can also offer a more in-depth insight into the entire field of
study of foreign policy.
Conclusion
Conclusively we can say that. The article is an excellent addition to the special issue in India
Review. All the notions of hard work and thorough research are present in the report.
Furthermore, the article is well arranged and very engaging. However, some unavoidable
shortcomings are present in all the articles. The gaps work in the same context as this one.
The article, Opening the black box – The making of India's foreign policy will surely help
future researches in a great way on the subject of India's Foreign Policy.

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