ABSTRACT
This chapter sketches the major dimensions of India's foreign policy since independence. It discusses the end of the Cold War and a new power imagination; and outlines India's forays into new multilateralism. Relations with the United States, China, West Asia, and the immediate neighbourhood have remained critically important to India's foreign policy in the post-Cold War years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked on a very active foreign policy drive and sought to introduce a far more strategic orientation to India's foreign policy. He has also signalled intentions of a more proactive maritime policy and embarked on ambitious plans to modernize India's war-fighting capabilities. While India no doubt benefits from multilateralism and interdependence, it also faces the challenge of gaining sufficient autonomy under unipolarity – the norms on interdependence and other issues are shaped primarily by the hegemon and its allies rather than by the other members of the international system.
