Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The importance of economic integration brought about by the process of globalization had a profound influence on India’s foreign policy. In the post-Cold War period, one of the most immediate manifestations of this was India’s Look East policy, an endeavor to reconnect with Asia as a part of India’s economic globalization. The process, now renamed as ‘Act East’, received a new vigor in recent times. The policy is a recognition of the linkage between diplomacy and economic development, and Asia, with its economic dynamism, became India’s principal foreign policy priority. However, while on the one hand, the process of globalization has necessitated the importance of integration and the pursuance of political diplomacy to towards that end, the opposing tendencies of globalisation is also evident. For instance, the narrative of northeast India as a gateway to Southeast Asia, as the most common policy pronouncement vis-a-vis India’s Act east policy, reflects this dichotomy. It is here where both the process, of the necessity of regional integration on the one hand, and the counter-tendencies like accentuation of nationalism based on cultural and ethnic identities, as a result of migration, goes hand in hand. In this context, this paper highlights these fragmenting tendencies at the domestic level standing up against the globalizing influences of regional integration and the impact it might have on India’s foreign policy-making.