India’s National Security: A Liberal Account

A liberal account of Indian national security is more complicated than its realist-and arguably also its constructivist-counterparts. Realist accounts appeal, in varying ways, to the anarchical structure of the international system and to the effectiveness of political elites in correctly assessing threats and in providing the state with adequate means to manage them ( Ganguly 2017). Constructivist accounts appeal to the shifting socially constructed identities of states and other actors to explain national security policies, tracing how they generate norms of state behaviour ( Chacko 2012; Mallavarapu 2017). By contrast, liberals argue that national security policies reflect a wider range of factors than realists allow and that those factors have a more significant effect on national security strategies and outcomes. To different degrees, liberals hold that both national security policymaking and the security of the state are influenced by the political ideas espoused by elites and publics, the political institutions in which they operate, the political competition within the state between the many societal actors it contains, and the international institutional context in which they are situated (Moravcsik 2011). These factors, rather than just economic or military capabilities, as realists think, or identities and behavioural norms, as constructivists contend, shape the policy preferences of governments, according to liberals, even in areas like national security (Moravcsik 1997). This chapter argues that liberalism can provide a better account of why India pursues the national security policies that it does and why India ends up with the outcomes those policies, when applied, help to generate. In turn, it focuses on roles played in shaping those policies and outcomes by the four factors liberals think matter: political ideas, political institutions, political competition, and international institutions. This chapter argues that a particular set of political ideas about national security-Nehruvian ideas, named after India's first prime minister (PM), Jawaharlal Nehru-played a highly influential role in shaping India's distinctive approach to national security. It notes too that these ideas have been and remain contested, especially by advocates of Hindu nationalist and realpolitik alternatives. The chapter argues that India's political institutions also affect its approach to national security, and that political competition within the Indian state plays an increasingly important role in defining national security policies. Finally, it argues that India's engagement with international institutions, law and regimes, all influence the ways in which India's elite tries to manage threats to its national security.